The Forgotten Masters
by VoltEagle
Summary: Ash and May travel together in a very dangerous Hoenn, all the while unlocking things about their past, along with the aura demons inside themselves, with finding the sacred stones of Hoenn that are vital to a unlock secret in the world's past before Team Aqua and Magma find them first. Violence, Language. AU. Dark-Ash/May. Aura. Advanceshipping. OOC. *Hiatus*
1. Chapter 1: New Traveling Companion

**Prologue  
**

"Pikachu! Use thunderbolt!" A young man yelled to his rodent companion on top of his shoulder. The Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and into the sky while discharging chained lightning, dropping half of the Spearow flock led by a Fearow, yet somehow the Fearow didn't survive.

Many charred skeletons dropped into the dense forest above Pallet Town. Yet there was still enough Spearows to blot out the sun, a sight that almost terrified Ash. However both beings still stood their ground with the chances of survival being almost none. "Do you still have another thunderbolt left in you?" Ash asked his Pikachu, who nodded but only held up one claw meaning that he truly had one left and no more. "Okay do it!" barked Ash as Pikachu became almost like a lighthouse with the amount of light he emitted. Ash thought that Pikachu would've been visible from miles away. Then the next moment, a beam of electricity cackled through the air, hitting numerous targets in less than a half of a second.

Despite that, the Fearow and few other Spearows were still alive and kept dive-bombing the helpless trainer and his Pokemon. With Pikachu out of energy, Ash picked him up and started to run the other way. However the remaining flock was gaining on the duo fast. Too fast. Ash didn't bother to look back, as he felt the winds produced by the Fearow's twenty foot wingspan.

A moment later, the Fearow's talons grasped at Ash's back but Ash didn't know what was worse, the fact that his back had been gashed wide open or he had to swat away the Spearows. Ash, with great pain, looked behind him to see the Fearow's missing him by a mere inch.

Ash rolled into a deep puddle in order to dodge the piercing drill beak. However that didn't stop the Spearows tearing apart his and Pikachu's flesh. He had one arm around Pikachu and the other around his head to prevent the Spearows from plucking his eyes out. The agitated birds were hissing and cawing until the main one's head, Fearow, was sliced off by a Scyther.

Fearow's decapitated head rolled around until a tree stopped it. Sensing a new danger, the Spearows attacked the mantis but they suffered the same fate as their leader.

Ash thought to himself, _either I have help or I am about to die..._

Those were his last thoughts before his world went black and became unconscious.

* * *

A raven-haired sixteen year old cringed as he remembered a vague old story about Gramps first experience in the wild before he remembered another thing that Gramps told him.

A promise. A promise that was made ten years ago to the very same day,

"Gramps?" He questioned, as the teenager searched in his family's rooms for the elder in question. The teenager named Ash kept repeating himself until he walked into the cellar where his kept all of his journals and trophies. He looked at the aged man in his rocking chair near the hearth, although he still did a lot of work outside the house, like splitting wood, mowing the lawn and other things. The pearl hair on his head receded but many people still considered it a mane, the raven color faded decades ago. His face was beat, full of wrinkles and scars yet there was still an ounce of fire and youthfulness hidden deep inside him. The Raichu in his lap was the same way as his master, his vibrant color faded and his facial perkiness drooped over the years. His electricity wasn't as strong as in his prime. Yet it was still better than half of the prime Pikachus and Raichus today, due to the fact that the world wasn't as dangerous. However Pokemon League officials never bothered to change the age limit for trainers and coordinators. Ashes spoke to his great-grandpa, "Today is my sixteenth birthday and remember the promise you made all those years ago?"

Gramps put a hand on his stubbly chin and pondered for a moment before he said, "Ah yes, yes I do. Put wood in the fire and take a seat."

Gramps pointed at the fire-pit then the empty rocking chair beside him. Grunting Ash quickly threw two pieces of wood into the fire from the stack before he took a seat on the dark Cheri tree rocking chair. Between the two rocking chairs was a stool, a stool with around seven journals on it. Ash presumed that five of them was the travels that Gramps throughout the five regions during the Elite Trainer Challenge. However Ash didn't know about the two other journals, he guessed that they happened after the challenge.

Ash learned about the crisis that the world had happened nearly sixty years ago, in his high school history class, but not from Gramps himself who experienced it first hand. Ash had the feeling that the history books omitted many things, like for example the involvement the Elite Trainer Alliance had with the crime syndicates. Many of the crime syndicates in the past still influence the world today, like Team Rocket and Cipher. Other crime syndicates either disbanded or were wiped out from the famous invasion. History books said Gramps took them out by himself, he said he had secret help.

History book-writers don't include what was legal back then but illegal now as to keep the 'heroes' well... heroes in the eyes of the public.

Gramps lifted the many journals until he found the second one, the one that started it all even if his first journey was the technical beginning. May, his wife, forced him to write an autobiography based on his life so Gramps decided to name the journals by what was the important part of that specific section of that journey.

He had named the Hoenn Journal, section;

The Forgotten Masters.**  
**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon **

**Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes****  
**

This is the first section (up until Ch. 9,Ch. 10 and onwards is the new section) and completely skippable aside from a few parts but I would hope you don't actually skip it(best chapters - 6, 9). Section 1 is just the basis for the story in Hoenn.

Ch. 1 - 9 and Ch. 10+ are very different in terms of feel and style so if you don't like this chapter or next, just try reading Ch. 10. If you still don't like it, oh well.

* * *

Chapter I: New Traveling Companion

In the early morning sun, a late-teenager raven hair trainer and his Pikachu walked along the dirt path that led towards a diner. There was a slight cool breeze that tousled the trainer's uncovered mane. The reason was because Leaf stole his trademark hat the night before. The teenager just simply sighed.

He hung out with the other elite trainers, and got to know them better due to their travels in the past. However the three Hoenn trainers were late because their ship was delayed by a storm the day before. So Ash still didn't know any of the Hoenn trainers.

The sound of the combusken's call echoed the surrounding farms and resonated through the air. The birds chirped their songs and the insects sung loudly. The air was crisp, and smelled like freshly cut grass along with the smell of bacon emanating from the local restaurants.

The sky was cloudless but streaks of red, orange and purple that melded into the bright blue sky was clear. The moon was faintly apparent above the rising sun. The grass along with the dark green leaves on the trees was covered in early morning dew.

He heard a Pidgeot call in the distance that was getting louder and smiled, because he knew it was his. He had it through Johto, but when he returned a couple of weeks ago, there was a large Fearow that were attacking an innocent flock of Pidgeottos and Pidgeys. He called out his Pidgeot and helped defended the defenseless flock, he then decided that it would best for his Pidgeot to stay there and protect them. However it didn't mean that Pidgeot couldn't visit him. Ash smiled as his first flying type as he watched it descend to him.

The large bird became visible in the sky and became larger as it descended. The trainer's hair became more tangled because of the gusting that his Pidgeot did when it landed. The Pidgeot cooed when his former trainer ran his fingers through his feathers. However the Pidgeot looked serious when it bent down and pecked two orbs on his trainer's belt.

A large land shark and a monkey with blue flames emerged from the red light and sounded their frightening calls. His Pidgeot quickly explained his reasoning to the Pikachu who then explained it to his trainer. With a nod from the trainer, Pikachu jumped off of his trainer and onto Pidgeot's back. The Infernape quickly jumped onto the Garchomp's back and then both the Garchomp and Pidgeot took off into the sky with much urgency.

Sighing, the trainer continued with his walks towards the diner for an important meeting. Today was the day that he would have a new traveling partner. Both Brock and Misty had to attend to their gym duties because of family reasons. He didn't feel like traveling with Gary because well... he's Gary. The trainer hoped that someone else didn't have someone else to travel with and if all else fails he would travel with the Johto trainers. But, to him, anything would be better than traveling with Gary.

He soon entered the diner, and the only people that greeted him were the waitresses, the Oaks, and Leaf. The diner had a homestead vibe to it. There was a long untouched fireplace in the far corner along. Most of the furniture was made out of Cheri. Some of the waitresses cleaned the wooden counter aimlessly as they waited to take the orders from large group of people. They had to shut down the diner to regular people because the meeting was supposed to be secret but most people of the public had a fair amount of knowledge to know what was happening.

There was a 'U' made out of five rectangular tables. Each table represented a region and three people from each region. The bottom of the 'U' was Kanto with Johto and Unova to the right and Hoenn and Sinnoh to the right. Every seat had a person in it except for the Kanto table which had one spot open - the seat next to the gorgeous, according to just about everyone, brunette.

The raven hair trainer sat down and that was the moment when Professor Oak decided to stand.

He began with, "Hello everybody. I assume everyone made it out here with no real issue. First I would love to thank everyone that could come today and now I would like to begin the meeting. First, I'm supposed to read the rules but does anyone really need me to read them again? I'm sure everyone understands." Oak looked around for any objections but everyone blankly stated at one another, either because it was early or the morning or they were hungry. "Second of all, I'm supposed to write down who is going with whom. I'm guessing it will be the same as last time." Oak continued and was about to begin before two trainers objecting, with the brunette being outspoken by the male trainer.

"Then who are you going with?" Oak asked as he walked over to the male trainer and cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Me." The brunette stated while the professor gave he a quizzical look before he began to scribble out some things on his clipboard and write down the correction. Everyone was thoroughly surprised that the brunette said that, even the brunette herself. The raven-hair trainer received two death glares, both from the Hoenn male trainers, and a sneer from Gary who was quickly silenced by Leaf. May received a frown from the far Hoenn trainer, Brendan, and a glare from Dawn. The raven hair trainer had large Butterfrees grow in his stomach because of the brunette's appearance.

"Alright. Next, we have to decide who is going where. Besides Ash and May, I'm assuming everyone is going to travel to the next region besides Kanto. Am I correct? "He looked around for any objections but found everyone nodding in response. However both Ash and May stopped listening to him when they heard each other's name. Out the corner of their eyes, their eyes locked with each other and the only ones that noticed this was the female Johto trainer and Leaf. Leaf kept quiet while the Johto trainer whispered into the man next to her ears, the man grew a smirk on his face and was about to say something but the woman quickly placed her elbow into his ribs.

"So Ash and May, where are you going?" Because the two didn't answer right away, Max and Leaf elbowed them in the ribs like Lana, the Johto trainer, did to Marshall, another Johto trainer, seconds before. They realized where they were and they gave Professor Oak a quizzical look and he repeated his question.

"Hoenn/Unova." Both of them blurted without consulting each other first. Oak gave them a look that basically amounted to 'which one?' The two looked at each other and turned back the professor. "Unova/Hoenn." Oak sighed and basically said try again. This time the two nodded at each other before they came up with their final answer. "Hoenn."

"I suppose the meeting is over that. Now let's have breakfast." Oak chuckled while every other person's sweat dropped because they thought he forgot something, which he did, and they, themselves, forgot it. Oak hummed as he strolled over to his grandson and placed a hand on Gary's shoulder. "Breakfast is on Gary." Somehow the professor remembered that from last year but not the important thing. Everyone chuckled at Gary while he growled in annoyance.

"So who's going to pay for breakfast next year?" Ash asked to no one in particular. All of the elite trainers had a person in their mind, including the person himself.

"Brendan." Even Brendan himself said his name in response to Ash's question. There was a good reason for that, he was the only to lose to every gym leader on the first try, and the people, Max, had to save him from getting killed every time. Not to mention that it took Brendan the longest to earn eight badges at a year and two weeks. The only reason Gary had to pay this year was because his name is Gary, and if Gary's name was not Gary then he wouldn't have to pay.

"I think Ketchum-." The purple hair from Sinnoh started to talk but was soon interrupted by the hyperactive brunette.

"Ash." Dawn interjected and didn't even care that Paul didn't finish. However Paul didn't care either, the first time. No one noticed the small tinge of red appear on Ash's face from either embarrassment from Dawn trying to get Paul say his proper name or anger from not being called his proper name.

"I think Ketchum should have to because-." This time when he was interrupted, Paul became noticeably irritated yet Dawn didn't care.

"His name is Ash." Everyone had a small smirk on their face when Dawn interrupted Paul once again except for the one who she did that too. If anyone wanted to annoy or distract someone, they would send Dawn and or Max to them.

"Dawn can you let me finish?" Paul snapped but Dawn jumped back on their faces, and everyone look surprised because Paul never really reacts to people much.

"Maybe." The Johto trainer named Marshall, who had a dark brown mohawk, smirked while Paul looked like he was to explode. Unlike Dawn or Max with being a distraction or annoyance, Marshall was someone who would intimidate and make someone angry beyond belief with a simple one-liner.

"May has a crush on Ash!" Max blurted for an unknown reason or otherwise tried to relief the tension but unbeknown to him, he raised tension between the blushing Ash and May.

"I uh-what?" Both May and Ash stuttered at first before they cocked an eyebrow at the youngest trainer there, and blushed, hard, but both for different reasons.

"Hmm?" Max whistled innocently and stared straight without making eye-contact with either and tried his best to keep a straight face.

"Someone has a crush on Ashy-boy? I never thought I'll see the day." Gary sneered but was immediately shut up by an elbow to the ribs from Leaf. Ash looked ready to cause a serious or fatal injury to him.

"Shut up Gary." Ash snapped at Gary and the two people, Leaf and May jumped back at his outburst even though they knew it was coming.

"Hello my name is-." Unfortunately at this time, the waitress decided to come over and was immediately cut off by a rude Sinnoh trainer.

"No one cares. Just take our order." Paul spoke in a cold voice as the waitress puffed her cheeks and looked irritated.

"But we do though." Gary tried to flirt with the waitress to try to get her less irritated. However the rest of the trainers either shook their heads, face palmed, or sweat dropped at his horrible attempt of trying to get the waitress to feel better.

"All of you are such kids." The purple hair trainer, Iris, from Unova spoke with much annoyance apparent in her voice.

"Will everyone shut up!?" Ash shouted and stood which made everyone barring Marshall and Paul slink back into their seats.

"No." At that moment everyone went into a sudden burst of laughter, except for Marshall and Paul who were slightly chuckling. The trainers didn't have a time to relax and generally had a good time with each other for a long time because of the dangerous regions they traveled to. Everyone enjoyed the moment and they continued to laugh and joke around with each other, which didn't allow for the waitress to take their orders. So in the end Professor Oak told the cooks just to make a massive amount of food, and so they did.

* * *

"Finish her with Frenzy Plant!" The raven-hair trainer ordered his forest lizard as large roots started crack from the earth below. Eventually six tree-width roots broke out from underneath the ground and raced towards the fire type who was a preparing an attack of her own.

"Counter with Blast Burn!" The Blaziken had her maw open as a blue and white orb formed in her mouth. When she was finished, she let loose the extraordinarily blast of fire at the incoming roots. The flames didn't burn hot enough to incinerate the incoming roots but it did fill the gaps between the roots.

A moment later the flames and the roots hit their respective targets, and it was clearly a draw even though Ash had a type disadvantage towards May. The Sceptile lay on his side, clutching his chest with his claws and had large scorch marks apparent everywhere on his body. On the other hand, the Blaziken was implanted into the ground, with each root constricting her movement.

Both trainers immediately recalled their Pokemon and ran up to each other, all the while avoiding the flaming and uprooted ground. They smiled when they shook hands and congratulated each other for having a good match.

The little brother of the brunette was in disbelief that his idol tied to his older sister. He fully expected him to demolish her, even if he had the type disadvantage. Even if Max was sixteen, he still had people that he looked up to. Although it was just two people, the widely agreed best trainer in the world, Ash Ketchum, and his father Norman Maple. He watched every battle on television of Ash and Norman since he was a little boy. By combining both of their styles, he quickly became a 'prodigy'. Max solemnly walked over to the older trainers with his eyes focused on the ground.

"What's wrong Max?" His older sister, May, questioned as she carefully lifted his chin and made him look at her.

"Nothing." Max shook his head free from his sister's grip and started to walk away in the other direction. May wanted to run up to him and press further but Ash said that he would take care of it since he remembered that she said his brother idolized him. Ash took his leave and followed the young boy.

"Max!" Ash shouted as the younger trainer turned back to look at him, Max's face had the look of wondering what he wanted from him.

"What?"

"You shouldn't idolize me." Ash spoke.

"How did you know?"

"Your sister." Ash blurted, straight to the point.

"Oh... do you have a crush on her?" Max quickly spoke as he whistled innocently and put his hands in his pockets. He looked into the sky so he didn't see Ash blushing.

"Wh-what? Why would you think that?" Although it was true, in his mind there absolutely no hints that showed that. He barely talked to her at the restaurant, and when he did, it was about her shallow details, like where she was from or how old she was.

"So you do?" Ash realized that this was a scheme and started to walk back to where May was standing. May could see Ash shaking his head while Max was smirking behind him before he turned around and began to wander.

"What did he say?" May questioned as she cocked an eyebrow at Ash and Max, who was out sight by now.

"Umm..." Even if Ash had little to no idea about the subject of romance, he still knew about the concept of having a crush. Although Ash had no idea why he had a crush because he barely knew the girl, and like the other new feelings other than the usual happiness, determination and sometimes regret, the attraction he felt toward May felt... natural, "Nothing."

"Okay..." May spoke unconvincingly and seemed like she wanted to change the subject, "what should we do now?"

"I think you should meet my mother, you'll love her." Ash gave a wide smile and pointed to a house far below the hill that the lab stood on.

May nodded at the trainer and gave him a look that basically said 'after you'. From what she remembered from the last year, and all of the battles and post-battle videos she saw, Ash had matured greatly. He was about the same height as her when she first saw him, but now he had at least six inches on her. It was mind-boggling to her for a person to grow that tall in such a short period of time. She considered him attractive when she first saw him on television, but now he was handsome. But one thing that never changed was his goofy smile and his flowing mane. Instead of the childish clothes he once wore, he now wore simple dark gray jeans along with a pure-white t-shirt.

* * *

Sorry if it felt rushed

**Some clarifications:**

Ash & May never formerly met**  
**

The shipping is just a side plot, and hopefully when I do it, it doesn't feel rushed

These(Marshall&Lana) main OCs **aren't **going to take over this story, the next time is you'll see them is in a random Hoenn Gym, however I'll admit that they will be a big influence in some arcs.

- Thanks** Midnightmoon602** for beta-reading, read and review her stories as well

**Ages:**

May/Dawn/Hilbert/Lucas - 18**  
**

Ash/Gary/Leaf/Brendan/Hilda/Lyra - 19

Marshall(OC)/Lana(OC)/Iris/Paul - 20

Max - 16


	2. Chapter 2: Sunsets Are Never Good

Chapter 2: Gift

"This is really good Mrs. Ketchum," The brunette spoke as she wolfed down her last bowl ramen. The raven-hair was surprised that someone other than himself could eat that much food after eating a big breakfast.

"Thank you very much May; I'm glad you enjoyed it." Delia, the male's mother, replied as she, along with Mr. Mime, took the empty dishes away from the table. Delia returned a moment later and sat down at the table, "So where are you from?" She asked.

"I'm from Hoenn, Mrs. Ketchum, are you from Kanto or another region?" May answered and spat the question back out, although she already knew the question because of what Ash told her earlier. Speaking of Ash, he was starting to get restless because he and May agreed to release their Pokemon shortly after lunch.

"I'm going outside." Ash announced as he stood from the table, and lifted his newly heavy self outside. The two females just said 'okay' in a bored tone as they continued they talk to get to know each other.

Once outside, Ash grabbed all of the spheres from his belt and through them out. Barring his Garchomp and Infernape, of course, because they had been on a mission with Pidgeot and Pikachu since the morning. Ash scratched the back of his head wondering what they could be doing.

A female Tyranitar whose nickname is Gira but Ash sometimes refers to her as Tyranitar. Same with all of his other Pokemon with nicknames. He was forced to give them nicknames so the Pokemon themselves can differentiate from one another. Although he did win some names so he didn't have to call them by a nickname. Every time he called his Pokemon by their simple name, an elite trainer showed up and he was forced to call them by their nickname.

Besides Pikachu, Gira, Taz, the Infernape from earlier, Carch, the Garchomp, and Boss, the Sceptile. Ash also has a Feraligatr that is named Croc.

Sceptile limped over to the nearest tree so he could recover from his battle from earlier. Croc and Gira decided to spar with each other, with Pikachu as the referee. He missed his Charizard and Pidgeot in his team, but at the same time he enjoyed both Carch and Taz being there as well. Carch would've enjoyed having a dragon rival in Charizard. And Taz looked up to Charizard as a fire-user when he met him. Taz liked Pidgeot because he gave him rides, but Carch never met Pidgeot until the past week even if replaced him a few weeks ago. Now the two were inseparable.

If Ash ever wanted a chuckle, he would make Croc face Gira every time. Croc had a jolly personality and did anything for a joke. But most of the time, Gira was as at the butt-end. So it resulted in a feud between the two even if Croc wasn't serious at any time. One time Gira managed to get Croc upset, and it didn't turn out well for the pseudo-legendary. If anyone got any of Ash's Pokemon irritated and ready to kill, there would no traces of any body left.

"Where are you other Pokemon?" May asked as she sat down beside Ash on the back porch.

"Helping out a friend." Ash replied along with a simple shrugging of his shoulders. In all honesty, Ash had no idea where they were or what they were doing except that they were with Pidgeot.

"Do you want to see mine?" May asked and didn't wait for an answer when she grabbed all of the orbs of her belt and threw them high into the air. May pointed to the newly emerged Pokemon, and introduced each of them to Ash. "The Dragonite is Storm." The Dragonite did a back flip in the air when she heard her trainer say her name. "That is Godo." May pointed to the Aggron who was eyeing up Gira as he pounded on his breastplate. "You already know Kelly." Kelly staggered over to the Sceptile who was half-asleep. "This is Glaceon, Eve." May giggled when the ball of ice fur jumped into her arms. "The Munchlax is Goon." May pointed to the Munchlax who sat on thick branch, and munched a large apple. "Lastly the Venusaur is Venus." The Venusaur opened her eyes and did a simple wave with a vine, half-heartedly to say the least, before she went back to sleep.

"I'll introduce the others when they get back. But uh... you already know Boss, my Sceptile." Ash glanced over at the fiery chicken and the forest lizard lying back against the tree, seemingly holding a deep conversation. "That is Gira; she pretty much hates everyone..." There was a slight blush on the Tyranitar's face but it was quickly covered up by a death glare. "... Except a certain Pokemon." Ash looked over to the Ferilagatr to see him playing around with May's Munchlax. It was apparent that Goon was not pleased. "... And that is Croc."

"Looks like they're getting along... well." May observed at the Pokemon who were either ignoring each other or were bickering for a reason unknown to their trainers.

"Yeah... we need to fix that. Don't we?" Ash questioned as his sweat-dropped at his Ferilagatr poking the Munchlax on his forehead.

"Yep." May glanced at the Tyranitar taking down be Aggron, easily nevertheless, and walking away from him.

"Hey May..." Ash turned his head so he could lock his eyes with hers.

"Yes?"

"Do you have any armor?"

Confused at the sudden question, the brunette replied honestly. Unsure what her response would lead her to. "No, why?"

"My mom may have some extra armor." The boy explained.

"Okay..." Still unsure, May agreed to accept the extra armor the boy's mother had made.

That was the end of their conversation before Taz and Pikachu dropped down from Carch and Pidgeot's back respectively. They thought the other Pokemon were being hostile to the others, so both Pikachu and Taz started to attack the others. When Carch landed, all hell broke loose. Except for the two already battle-fatigued Pokemon, who simply shook their heads at their teammates' actions. A simple, _'hey idiots, we're supposed to be friends'_, would've prevented the whole mess.

Carch took to the air to face Storm, who was pissed that they attacked her teammates without a good cause. Carch was frustrated because he failed to protect some of the flock so he decided to take it out on May's Dragonite. Needless to say, two angry pseudo-legendaries attacking each other didn't bode well for either party.

After unwittingly butting their heads together, Storm grabbed Carch from his arm, (wing?), pits and plunged down to the ground. However when she neared to the ground, Carch wouldn't let her release him. As a result both Pokemon went splat, although still very much alive.

The fight between Goon and Croc was the most interesting because it contained apples and mud. Not actually attacking each other. It looked like it was a draw because both were covered in the same amount of mud and naturally made applesauce.

Both Kelly and Boss tried to prevent Venus and Taz from killing each other, but in the end was cheap-shotted by the opposing Pokemon. Even if they were worn out, they were the Pokemon that people should mess with. Ever. Besides Charizard, that's just asking for a fate worse than death itself.

Kelly did not appreciate the punch to the back of the head. Taz realized that Kelly was not pleased. He had a look on his face that basically 'oh crap' and ran far away from the infuriated Blaziken. However that didn't mean Kelly stopped chasing, and a few moments later there was a large screeching emanating from the forest nearby.

Boss did not enjoy getting slapped without knowing about. When he turned to face the Venusaur, she smirked at him and sent two of her vines towards Boss. Boss did not have any hint of amusement apparent on his face when he caught the two vines before they reached his face. He twisted his feet, and locked himself into the ground. When Venus tried to pull back, she couldn't, her smirk dropped. Boss pulled one vines toward him and the other skyward so could flip her over a few times. They both knew who was in charge.

Eve, May's Glaceon, and Pikachu were both irritated because of the same reasons as their dragon teammates. They shot wicked thunderbolts and ice beams at each other but never actually hit. Until Pikachu realized that he was wrong when he looked at his trainer sitting next an unknown girl. That was when Eve took advantage and slammed Pikachu to the ground with her tail, seemingly saying 'now explain.' All the while explaining, both of their trainers were chuckling at his expense. However of their laughing stopped when both Pokemon menacingly looked over at their trainers, they gulped and proceeded to explain.

Then the two trainers looked over at their biggest bulkiest Pokemon, Godo and Gira. Godo held his claws over his head to prevent Gira's tail from swatting him. Gira looked like she was having... fun while Godo was absolutely terrified even if he was a steel-plated beast.

The fights seemed to end when Pikachu and Eve let loose a large beam of electricity and ice into the air. All of the Pokemon stopped looking at each other but still followed through with their current actions. It was amusing for the trainers and the two, somewhat, responsible mammal-like Pokemon to watch their reactions but for the Pokemon themselves, they were not happy.

All of them gave a death glare towards the two, and the two immediately silenced themselves. Shortly after, they explained the miscommunication of both parties and what was going to happen after a brief explanation from their trainers to them.

Most of the Pokemon apologized for their actions except for Boss and Kelly who said that the other deserved it. Which Taz and Venus did, no one should cheap shot one another in a Pokemon battle.

Moments later, the Pokemon began boosting about their past 'conquers' and amazing battles to each other which resulted in laughing and poking fun at each other in a fun way.

May and Ash did the same thing, telling each other stories about their past adventures. Most of their stories were told in a light-hearted manner but the reason why their stories happened wasn't because of enjoyment but their dark world that they lived in. But their way of telling the stories masked the true theme of their stories and led to the two trainers having a good time to get to know leach other better.

Not only did they tell stories but they talked about the friends they lost because of the organizations and gym leaders. They talked about who they loved, although Ash and May's version of what love is might as well have been on the opposite ends of the always expanding universe. They talked about the oddly funny things, things that make someone scratch their head and say 'what the hell', that happened to them.

Before anyone knew it the sun began to dip below the horizon. They spent the entire afternoon having a good time with each other. They laughed and smiled with each other for the majority of the long summer day. The cool summer breeze cooled them from the hot humid weather. The wind blew in their faces every minute and they basked in the amazing tingly sensation that rippled throughout their bodies. They knew that they had to cherish every single peaceful moment.

At that moment a mushroom cloud appeared in the far distance, followed by large boom moments later. May and her Pokemon had a worried expression on their faces because they thought something big and bad happened. However Ash and his Pokemon looked at the large mushroom cloud with a blank expression on his, May saw this and questioned him, "Aren't you worried?"

"It's probably Team Rocket and Psychics so would I be worried?" Ash questioned as he stared deep into the fearing, and hurt, glimmering sapphire eyes of May. He wondered what made her so fearful and hurt and why she was worried over a simple explosion. However she soon exploded with her answer.

"I don't. Maybe there was someone you knew in that explosion!" May exclaimed as she ignored Ash's first comment and Ash wanted to laugh at her logic. He only knew a few people from Team Rocket and they surely weren't stupid enough to be caught in an explosion and as for the psychics, he detested them. So instead of laughing, Ash gave her a warm smile and tried to calm her down. If this was years ago when he wasn't mature, he would blow up at her for exploding on him.

"Listen, like I said before the explosion was caused by Psychics and Team Rockets. I only know a few people from Team Rocket and they aren't idiotic enough to be caught in an explosion," Ash responded and cupped his hands around her shoulders. May slightly calmed down but instead of showing anger, her face showed sadness and regret. Ash frowned at the sight of the brunette -_ 'what made her like this?'_

"I thought so too," May's voice was low and soft, way different from her harsh tone from a moment ago. Ash had a confused look on his face and May somehow noticed this even with her bangs in her eyes that were cast on the ground, "I knew someone who I thought was smart of enough to not get caught up with criminals. It turned she wasn't."

"What happened?"

"A friend of mine, no best friend, and she were like my twin. We kept our distances away from criminals, and she said she would never deal with them even if some one was getting attacked. I applauded her doing that, we were kids at the time and we knew we couldn't stand up to adult criminals, and I agreed. Now, up until last year she kept true to her word, or that's what she wanted me to believe. I learned she was dealing with both Magma and Aqua, and that was same time Aqua did as well, and the next day her house exploded in the same fashion as that cloud. She tried to make it up to me by coming to my house, and I turned her away instantly and sent her home. Minutes later, her house exploded while she was in it. The thing was that the bomb was timed, but if I had listened to her for one moment, she would still be alive," May spoke in a depressed tone, and Ash was surprised that there was no tears falling down her cheeks. Other than two words, Ash was otherwise speechless.

"I'm sorry?" Ash wanted to figure out a way so May wouldn't blame herself for what happened. Sure how it happened was sort of her fault, but why it happened wasn't her fault. And an idea in Ash's mind clicked.

"Don't be, it wasn't anyone's fault but mi-."

Ash cut her off the moment she was going to say that it was her fault, "No it's not entirely your fault. Do you know why? It wasn't your fault that she didn't keep true to her words. I'm sure she had a good reason but she was the one to involve herself in crime."

"But-."

"End of story, it wasn't your fault." Ash reassured May with sturdy hands still cupped around he shoulders and a warm smile that washed away any guilt that May harbored for a year.

"Thanks," May's focus was still directed on the ground and she still had the same 'woe-is-me' tone, but at least her mind was cleared.

"Is this a bad time?" The mother to Ash asked the two trainers, and they both shook their heads 'no' before Delia continued, "I overheard the comment about armor earlier, and so I readied the armors that me and your father wore, Ash. I would like to give you two them."

"Thank you mom," Ash spoke as he stood up and helped May in the process. May showed her gratitude by simply nodding with a small smile on her face as Delia motioned them to follow her into the house.

* * *

Both of the young adult's eyes widened when they saw the armors in a display-case, with the door wide open that invited them to get in. They looked like what the super-soldiers of the Kanto military wore.

One set of armor belonged to Ash's father, as it was navy blue with accents of crimson. Not only that but it was built lighter and taller than the orange armor, accentuated with emerald, situated next to it. Both looked like they had built-in jet-packs but it was just the design of the armor. On the back of Ash's armor there was a phoenix, something that looked quite like the legendary Pokemon Ho-oh. There were also small lenses on the backhands of Ash's armor, signifying that it was aura-compatible.

Both armors required the wearer to use a black-foam under armor. The only discernible difference between the two was the shorter yet bulkier stature of May's armor and the Rayquaza design on the spine.

"Ash, you have to use aura to activate the special abilities of your armor... and May you don't have to do anything as the armor is charged by itself. I hope you two like them" Delia announced to the two trainers with sparkling eyes and gaping mouths, like a child receiving a present on Christmas. She giggled a bit as Ash stuck his hand out like one as well. She elicited a grunt from Ash and May but she didn't think they understood what she said.

"Let me help you..."


	3. Chapter 3: Run to the Hills

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon**

If you don't catch the reference this chapter then... I don't know

Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes

* * *

**Chapter 3: Run to the hills**

"Don't worry you'll get used to it." Delia assured the two trainers who waddled in their suits of armor. Ash and May weren't efficient in walking yet so they fell to the ground often. Delia compared them to toddlers who were just beginning to walk which earned a glare from Ash and a light blush from May.

Delia ordered them to throw things, lift heavy stuff, and sprint until they were somewhat efficient in their movements which made them frustrated with her. Delia wanted Ash to try out his aura but he could only get a small sphere in one hand. Disappointed, Delia moved on to her next task for the trainers. Then she ordered Ash and May to spar with each other for their close combat exercises.

May let it slip in the sparring match that she wanted to do that earlier and is why she blushed. Ash, being the dense idiot he is, wondered why she couldn't have said that earlier because he would have been willing to. However Delia understood why May didn't want to spar without armor because of the grappling in their respective styles of fighting.

The full moon was perched in the middle of the starry sky when Delia terminated the impromptu training session. Delia assisted May to remove the armor first because of her extra plating. Again, Delia told Ash look the other way when she helped May remove the last bits of the form fitting protection. May scampered into the house so she could get the rest of clothes other than undergarments on.

Ash rotated himself around with a slight blush on his face because when saw May finish her trot into his house out of the corner of his eye. Delia caught his blush and scolded him for looking at a girl in her undergarments. She then told him that if he wants to be, in a relationship not just traveling, with her he should treat her correctly. Ash, at first, nodded his head before he caught on and denied that he didn't like her like that. Even though Ash knew that even if he lied to his mother, she would still know. Ash could lie to his mother easier than he could lie to Lana because his mother didn't have a muscular guy to physically hurt him to pry the information away.

Delia removed Ash's armor in less time than May because of the less plating. Ash had more mobility in his armor but not a lot of protection. May was like a runaway freight train, in her armor once she got going it would be hard to stop her but it didn't give her the mobility. Ash ran a little slower than May but not by much but Ash could decelerate a lot quicker and make a cut. Ash and May could lift the same amount of weight and they both generated the same force. Delia told Ash that his armor is boosted from the use of aura.

Delia went inside and returned with his clothes for him. Ash didn't mind being in only his boxers and a black t-shirt in the cool summer night. There was an occasional warm breeze that made Ash turn around from his house to face it in bliss. Delia returned with his clothes and said she would make the two of them a snack before they went to bed. Ash quickly put on his clothes and sat near his Pikachu and May's glaceon.

On his back, Ash stared into the starry sky with his hands under his head. He looked at the billions of stars that littered the navy sky. Occasional blasts of fire and purple energy were fired off in the distance and Ash thought it was a small skirmish between the psychics and team rocket for the millionth time.

The night bugs sung their tune in a peaceful manner as the bugs made Ash lose his awareness of his surroundings. Ash didn't notice the person that sat down on the grass beside him.

May slightly coughed to grab his attention and he jumped on his feet in a fighting stance. May giggled a bit before Ash hung his head and lowered himself back onto the ground. The way May made her appearance known was similar to Lana. When he thought of Lana, he thought of the conversation between her and May that made May blush.

"What did Lana say to you earlier?" Ash innocently questioned as he gazed high into the sky once again.

"Who? I don't really remember who she was?" May looked at Ash who looked into the sky and she herself wanted to know what he looked at. "What are you looking at?"

"The moon." Ash thought if she averted his original question then he shouldn't press it any further until she brought it up herself.

"What do you think is up there?" May asked and started to look for constellations. She found one and it looked like the big dipper. "Have you ever heard the story of the great Ursaring?"

"Yeah my mother told me the stories on how things came to be. She told me that her parents told them to her and her grandparents told them to her parents." Ash explained with a small smile apparent on his face. "And I'm going to tell them to my kids."

"How many kids do you think you'll have?" May questioned while she answered her own question inside of her head.

"I think I'll have three at the most." Ash answered before he came up with a question on his on and May thought it was just a coincidence that they wanted to have the same number of kids. "Enough about me. How many kids do you want to have?"

"I want to have three kids. I even have their names picked out already!" May happily exclaimed. "Do you want to hear them?"

"Sure." Ash shrugged his shoulders and thought if he had kids what he would name them.

"Don't make fun of me but I want to have two boys and one girl. The first name is Aaron." Ash raised an eyebrow because he thought of the same name and the same gender combination. "Then Alexandra." Things were getting weird and there were too many things that were the same for it to be a coincidence. "And lastly Miles." Ash had no idea how May had the same names and order of his kids. Ash thought that his name was special. And the way that May smiled and looked so happy while saying it made Ash feel happy as well. "What about you?"

"... Exactly the same." May looked at Ash if he was joking, he wasn't. May's smile faded and her face turned into a look of pure confusion.

"You're not serious, right?" May asked with her brows furrowed but Ash had the expression on his face that he was dead serious. Both Ash and May thought this was too much of the same information to be a coincidence. They were right.

"The snack is ready!" Delia shouted and looked at the faces of both May and Ash. Delia asked herself why she had to interrupt the two at the worst times. Ash stood up first and walked silently into his house with his head going into overdrive. May followed suit and had an expression on her face of pure confusion. "Should I ask?" Delia inquired as she set down two personal pepperoni pizzas in front of the two trainers.

Both of trainers said shook their heads as they simultaneously took a bite of the piping hot pizza. Ash slowly spit the pizza out on his plate without a napkin unlike May who did it discretely. They both chugged their glasses of milk that Delia set down from them. Delia brought them two pieces of ice to relieve the pain of on their tongue as she said, "I should've said that is was hot, huh?"

"Uh-huh." Both trainers said as they tried to cool their scolded taste buds by airing their tongues out.

They, unfortunately, picked up their next piece of pizza without a napkin and dropped it because how hot it was. Both trainers now had scolded taste buds and singed finger tips which earned a chuckle from Delia. They both glared daggers at her to which she responded, "It's funny how the two of you are so similar."

"No we're not." Ash defended himself as he finally took a bite of his pizza without a problem. Delia gave him a look that basically said, 'whatever you say.'

Delia left the two trainers in an awkward silence to eat their pizza. They only thing that was heard at the kitchen table was the blowing on the pizza. There was the occasional breeze of air that flowed through the kitchen window. The trainers didn't make eye contact with each other after the admission that they wanted to name their children the same thing.

Ash cleaned himself up and spoke to May in a quiet manner after he took a swig of milk, "I'm going to bed."

"Good night." May acknowledged with a sweet voice and a small smile on her face which in turn made Ash slightly smile as he put his dish in the sink.

Ash walked into his room and stripped down to his black t-shirt and boxers. He exited with a pillow and light blanket as he passed May who entered his room.

On both of their resting places, they looked up at the ceiling still wide awake with their hands behind their head. They thought about each other and what the future might hold.

May thought about Ash and of he is the 'one'. The only ones that ever showed interest in her was Drew and Brendan. Drew was someone who always encouraged her to become a full-time coordinator and gave her roses. He gave advice her on how to win with style but in an arrogant manner. Brendan was her childhood friend and grew up next door to him. He always showed jealously when another boy became close to what he thought was his girl. The problem with Brendan was that he never told May how he felt and always assumed that he liked her back.

Ash thought May as someone who he could relate with and be best friends with and maybe something more. Ash never really had a friend who he could consider better than the rest and he always had to save himself and them. His friends only saved him a few times while he saved them more times than he could count.

They finally asleep after what seemed like a long time of staring into nothingness. However the light sleep they entered was restless and they woke up every half hour to finalize their thoughts.

Morning came soon after for the trainers, Delia woke them up with the delicious smell of breakfast. Delia called them down and when they looked outside the kitchen window it was dawn. After everyone devoured breakfast , once again, Delia helped them with their armor and told them that they would have to help each other with armor from now on.

Delia packed their lunches and gave them supplies to last to Hoenn. She reminded Ash to change his underwear and told May to remind him as well. Ash gave his mother one last hug at the door before he set off once again on a dangerous adventure.

"I love you mom."

* * *

The two tree tops melded together like a grove to give minimal light to the trainers who sprinted in a straight line and hurdled the occasional fallen log. They heard their pursuer gaining on them and breaking branches. Their pursuer's snarls and growls grew louder and it seemed like it was just a stride behind them.

"Just run!" Ash yelled to May who was slightly ahead of him and just hurdled another fallen log. "Don't look back! Carch come out and help!"

Ash released a large purple dragon and it flew low to the ground along his trainer. Carch's wingspan couldn't fit in the distance between the two tree lines, so it forced him to have his wing tip barely above the ground. He looked back and saw an Ursaring chasing after them on all fours. The ursaring had blood on his claws and teeth and looked especially angry for an unknown reason. Ash didn't give Carch orders right away so he took the matters into his own ha... paws, claws?

Ash caught up to May and looked to sky to faintly see Carch do a loop high in the air. His wings were close to his body and he knew he was going to obliterate the back bones of the ursaring. He didn't want to look back when it happened nor now. Ash warned May to put her hands over her hears soon.

The garchomp aimed for the spot where he thought the ursaring would be. He couldn't adjust his landing position if the ursaring slowed down or sped up a lot. It would disastrous if any of those things occurred. As the garchomp neared to the ground, the trainers could only hear 'whoosh' from way above and not the ursaring. The ursaring heard as well and so he sped up before he died. He wanted to kill the things that entered his territory without permission. The ursaring didn't use hyper beam like all other ursaring, but he did know it for some explained reason, because he wanted to torture the intruders by his paws and not maw.

With a last ditch effort, the ursaring laid out for Ash and happened to get a paw on his right shoulder before the garchomp decimated him.

The air force that Carch produced pushed May to the ground. When May landed on her tailbone, she sighed and saw her breath which was unusual for seventy degree weather, and hopefully when she looked up everything was all over. However she watched in horror as she saw a cloud of dirt rise up where ursaring, Ash and garchomp once were.

"Ash?"


	4. Chapter 4: Psychics and Diseases

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon  
**

**Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes  
**

Longest chapter I wrote on fanfic yet**  
**

Read and Review**  
**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Psychics and Diseases**

May looked up as she heard a large boom. The brunette couldn't see anything, not Ash, not his Pokemon, and not the ursaring. Where they used to be, a large mushroom shaped dirt cloud was in their place.

"Ash?"

"Give me your lunch," was the only thing that was said during that moment. May was utterly confused by the four words. She didn't think the person was serious nor did she think that it was Ash.

The dirt settled on the ground and May coughed because of it. She stood there dumbfounded as she saw a psychic barrier around Ash, a psychic, the ursaring and garchomp.

The psychic held a dagger to Ash's neck with one hand and with the other, held the Pokemon off by creating a barrier. The Pokemon were held in place literally one inch away from hitting each other, they had wide eyes and very confused faces when they tried to move forward.

The man looked... off to May. He tilted his head and had a grin similar to that of the Cheshire cat. His wrinkly skin looked like it was milk. The crown of his head was bald and the rest of it was a grayish Afro. Some his teeth fell out due to decay. He wore a black robe with a leather sash across his waist.

The oddest part to May was Ash was... smiling as well. Like he just met an old friend who he hasn't seen in a long time.

"Where is my lunch!" The man demanded as he kept his position firm on Ash. May's eyebrows furrowed as she didn't understand that all he wanted was lunch as a ransom. The man kept a very serious demeanor, somehow with his grin, while Ash grinned just as wide as the man.

"Saving your boyfriend..." Both Ash and May immediately denied that they're were in a relationship. "I'm not done!"... "As I was saying... You normally get a reward for saving someone right, right?" May nodded with a blank expression on her face. "Right, for saving your boyfriend, I want your lunch." May nodded once again but she didn't want, or could, do anything. "If I don't get my reward, your boyfriend will be dead in a second." May shook her head and looked through her bag. She looked up at the man and said she didn't have anything. "Are you sure? Delia wouldn't be happy if you didn't share with me." May raised her eyebrows and looked through her bag once again to pull out her lunch. "Great, now hand it here... err feed me." The man tilted his head back and opened his mouth.

"What? I'll give you my lunch for Ash." May exclaimed and felt someone prodding in her head. "I would appreciate it if you don't do that."

"What thing did I do?" The man inquired with raised scraggly eyebrows.

"You did that thing that you did to me which hurt my thing." May explained and pointed to her head.

"What? I didn't do anything to your thing which was that thing that you said I did to your thing which hurt your... Thing." The man rambled and May was in no mode to back down to a mad man.

"You should know that thing what you did to my thing that I said you did to my thing which hurt my thing." May countered and tried to come up with his comeback inside of her head.

"What thing should I know of that thing which you said I know how to do that thing and that said thing you said hurts your thing?" May didn't expect that but however she somehow found a comeback.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you would walk away and have a good day kind sir." May spoke with much venom and sarcasm.

"Correct answer." May was completely dumbfounded at his reply and her jaw dropped. The old man released Ash and hugged him. At that point, her irritation and confusion overtook her and she fell to the ground without her body conforming to cushion her fall.

"Could you let Carch go?" Ash questioned as he disengaged the man hug and pointed to the Pokemon above the crowns of their heads. Being the literal bastard the man was, the man stepped back and released the garchomp who fell limply onto Ash.

"What about Snuggles over here?" The man pointed at the blood driven ursaring who flinched at the sound of that name.

The man released Snuggles and embraced it with a hug. The man didn't care that he got blood all over his old robes, but it was his new black ones, the bear would be dead. The ursaring tried biting the head off the man. However the man tickled the ursaring under his belly and he fell on his back loving the fact the he was never touched there before. In fact the ursaring looked like he was having a good time with the man. Ash and Carch's sweat dropped at the person who threatened to kill him for a lunch and then reduced a violent ursaring to a teddiursa in a mere moment.

May who had recently recovered, looked at the scene that unfolded in front of her and fell once again to the dirt path in the same fashion as before.

"What are you doing here Sage?" Ash still had no idea what Sage's real name is. Quite literally everyone in the world knew who Sage was or at least heard of him, with the only exception being if the person's name was May Maple. His name is more recognized then most Pokemon. His name was spoken about more than some legendaries are spoken about.

"What wouldn't I be doing here?" Sage flung the question right back at Ash who scratched the back of his head in a manner of 'I dunno.' "If neither you nor I know why I'm here then the most logical explanation is that I'm not here."

"What?" Ash had a blank expression on his face. Ash fell, in the same fashion to May's descent, on top of May when he saw Sage's next action.

Sage jumped on top of Snuggles and rode him like a cowboy would ride a rapidash. He proceeded to yell 'yee-haw' and within a second his outfit changed to that to match a cowboy. He ordered Snuggles to run and when he did so, Snuggles rose, ran, gradually into the sky. Within moments Snuggles and Sage disappeared completely into the blue sky.

Both May and Ash recovered soon after and looked oddly at each other. Without a word they traveled down the dirt grove path once again.

A few hours later they reached Terracotta Town where they would ride a ferry towards Hoenn. There was an evening contest that led into the morning, and they missed the last ferry out that day so May decided that she'll enter it. May suggested that Ash do enter as well, and he did.

"Have you ever competed in a contest before?" May questioned soon after the two finished registering with the coordinator of the event.

"Nope. This is a new challenge I'll gladly take." Ash answered with determination of winning apparent in his eyes.

"Do you want me to show you a few things?" May inquired as the two walked out of contest hall and towards a destination unknown.

"Sure." Ash spoke with much eagerness apparent in his voice.

The duo walked around to find a secret place to train so no one could scout their Pokemon and tactics. Eventually they found a place that was surrounded by trees on three sides in an arc and the fourth side faced the ocean. There was grass that faded into sand in the middle of the beach clearing. The clearing was as big as Ash's house which gave the two plenty of space to maneuver.

"I choose you Taz!" The blue-flamed ape appeared when Ash called him out. "We entered a contest with May and I'm going to use you in the appeal round."

"Nape?" Taz tilted his head sideways and scratched the back of it as well.

"A contest is where people coordinate Pokemon to show off their skills. It's more flamboyant." Ash explained to Taz who nodded until he heard Ash's last word.

"Nape nape?"

"It was something a friend of a girl I know said. I didn't really understand what it meant." Ash once again explained to his Pokemon. "It's time to train Taz."

"Ash, you have to perfect your appeal that you're going to do before this evening." May told Ash with a glaceon standing next to her. Ash noticed that the glaceon looked down and away with a minor tinge of red on her cheeks from the being next to his side, and Ash saw that Pikachu gazed into the ocean with the outside of his naturally red cheeks being the same color as glaceon.

"What should my appeal be?" He kneeled down to Taz's level but looked up to May.

"I would help you but I don't know what your Infernape is capable off." May spoke which disappointed Ash, but an idea popped into his awfully dense skull. "But watch me."

"Eve use shadow ball and then use ice beam to freeze them." The glaceon shot multiple balls that consisted of ghostly aura high into the sky and she quickly froze them with individual pulses of ice. "Now use signal beam to blow those balls up." Eve shot pulses of the rainbow colored beam at the frozen shadow balls. She did rapid fire so when each ball was hit, the ball exploded into a glittery snow that was tinted with purple. The display amazed Ash and it inspired him to come up with a crazy idea.

"I got it now, Taz dig nine holes and pop up in the middle one." Taz did as told and quickly burrowed in the ground. Taz didn't leave much dirt when he dug. "Can you use thunderbolt with the electricity you use for thunder punch?" Taz tried but he could only get electricity to travel through his fists a couple of feet. He tried once more but it only traveled a foot further. "We need to work on that. Solarbeam in the ground and flame fist!" Taz nodded before a large beam of greenish energy emitted from his mouth into the hole beneath. Simultaneously, two large streams emitted from the fists of Taz and mixed with the solarbeam. May knew that he had practiced that before because the solarbeam and flames spiraled with each other as they exited the four holes.

"Channel those pillars with your feet into the middle hole and fly above with a fire tornado." The pillars of energy arched, all the while looking like an intricate designed cage, into the middle hole with the swipe of one foot. Taz heaved one powerful last of solarbeam and flamethrower combination into the hole so that the arcs of energy and flame would be continuous. "Higher up." The height of Taz's tornado increased and he saw a lot of the Pokemon on the beach including a couple of... "Taz! Stop staring!"

Taz shook his head and squinted to see his trainer far below. "Send hidden power into the middle hole as well and create a sphere where the pillars meet." With his mouth and palms pointing into the middle hole, Taz shot bluish orbs into the middle hole. One by one the orbs expanded into rings and broke off sections of the flowing energy. Soon spouts of water broke the ground to reveal the design that Taz created with the solarbeam energy and flames. The trenches were outlined with solar energy and blue games with water glossing over the glassed underground. The design looked a lot like a combination between ho-oh and moltres. There was even flames designed coming off the wings. The middle hole was revealed to be the heart of the Phoenix.

"Amazing!" May gasped at the sight of the shining design, Taz puffed out his chest to mean that it was all of his idea. And so he took the blame when everyone turned their gaze to its wings. The left wing pointed inward and the right side was the same way. "Except for the wings..."

"We can always try again, right?" Ash questioned as he tried not to laugh at the misfortune in Taz's hard work. Taz didn't see his mistake and so he just nodded and looked at his creation with an ear-to-ear grin. That was until he saw the mistake after close examination.

"Nape nape!"

"Pika Pikachu nape pikapi?" Ash turned his head at the sound of the name that his Pikachu had given him. Pikachu waved it off and explained that if he meant Ash, he would use 'pikapi' at the beginning. Pikachu had to use charades to help Ash understand Pokemon grammar. Ash got the gist of it but not every whole detail that he thought Pikachu gave him.

"I think we should move somewhere else if you want to try that again." May commented as the two looked at the blazing design. Ash looked over to see Pikachu trying to cheer the irritated Taz up along with Eve. "I'm just wondering how did you come up with that idea?"

"Well..." Ash rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner because he was too embarrassed that a voice inside of his head told him that. "When I watched you, I looked how good you looked and how you made it look effortless. I guess the idea just popped inside of my head. I don't really know how it ended the way it did though."

"You think I look good?" May stopped listening to Ash when he admitted that she looked good, even though that wasn't what he meant.

"Of course I thought you looked good." The minor communication error could hurt them later on, but right now Ash gave May false hope with his somewhat dense personality. Ash gave May an assuring smile but May smiled weakly back. When Ash saw that she didn't her usual bright smile, he thought of how Lana and Brock gave him advice on how to treat girls even if he didn't want it.

"What's wrong?" Ash wanted to help her even if he was the one to cause her displeasure.

"Nothing, why?" Ash once again let it slide because he figured that she wasn't comfortable with him yet and then he told May to wait there. He jogged down a side path that looked overused in the woods that led to the beach.

May heard indistinguishable shouts and shrieks coming from Ash's direction. Shortly after Ash hung his head down with a face that was as red as the stripes on her armor. May asked, "What happened?"

"Multiple people on cloud nine that resulted in sore midsection muscles... especially the hip flexors."

* * *

"I forgot to ask but how did you master that solarbeam and flame combo?" The brunette asked the slightly older kanto trainer. They walked back from their next training spot. May almost perfected her appeal with some revamps, while Ash completely revised his appeal but still used the flame and solar energy combo.

"To be honest... boredom." Ash remembered the day where he thought of that idea. But the idea originally originated with his charizard in Johto. He left his Charizard in Charific Valley before he left Johto to help protect the charizard there. The man didn't want the many organizations that wanted to capture some of the rare breed of charizard that resided there. The charizard, in his mind, should be left alone and not be researched in a lab. He knew it happened to be a place where a mysterious disease ran rampant and knew that Liza didn't want any scientists trying to bust their way in.

"Sorry for interrogating you but how did boredom lead to mastery?" May's eyebrows furrowed at his answer.

"I'm not sure myself but I guess when Charizard saved me this one time at the border and Taz, who was a chimchar at the time, saw Charizard use that combination. Charizard touched Taz on his forehead, and he (Taz) became an infernape in no time and a controller of blue fire last week with the week before having controlled that combo. The same thing happened with Carch and Boss but I don't have to a clue as to what happened to them." Ash explained and was greatly surprised after Taz's quick raise to a powerhouse. He knew that he would be a powerhouse, just like all of his Pokemon. Croc and Gira became unimaginably strong and his new acquired Pokemon, Boss, Carch and Taz, he received from Elm mastered techniques and evolved to their final forms in about a month of training.

"Pokerus… Your Pokemon had pokerus."

* * *

**A/N:**

Not saying anything more about pokerus

Anyway I hope you smiled/ laughed at this chapter, especially the antics of that old guy

Ask questions, point out mistakes, anything but no flames, just review. If you like this story and want it to continue, review. I'm not going to waste time writing this if you, the readers, aren't going to review. Edit: If any of you are wondering that I'm going to quit updating/writing, then you would be wrong. It would be nice to have more reviewers though.


	5. Chapter 5: Savior

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon  
**

Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes

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**Chapter 5: Savior**

After May explained Pokerus to Ash, he understood what he did would be a lot more important in the future.

The two trainers enjoyed the warm golden rays of the sun once again as they walked along the beach path kicking sand up along the way. Most of the teenage boys gazed at May as they walked past her. They attempted to flirt with her and tried to put down Ash in the process. Both Ash and May ignored the younger boys, although if Ash were any younger he would've got in their faces. However once they called Pikachu pathetic, it was game over for them. As they received a nasty shock to their system, Pikachu learned how to shoot electricity without much noise or visibility. The electricity ran its course their bodies before they exited and when they threatened to sue them, both Ash and Pikachu laughed at them. Annoyed, the teenaged boys walked away.

May usually took care of the overzealous males by making comments that deflated their high egos. She loved to watch them get flustered with her words. They thought they could get an older girl with their arrogance but in the end failed miserably. It was like watching a computer geek beat a sports jock in an arm wrestling contest, rare but hilarious to watch.

"Thanks..." May spoke with a slight smile and even though Ash had been thanked for his actions for what seemed like a long time, the appreciation felt forced, superficial, but May's thanks felt genuine. This is in turn made Ash feel better about himself, even if it was something small and something that May probably could've took care of herself.

"Can you I ask you something, Ash?" May didn't look at Ash directly when she spoke but rather look at the scenery behind him that made Ash appear like he was someone out of a movie.

"You can ask me anything." The trainer turned to face her. "What's up?"

"I feel like that we are best friends who knew each other since we were five but we're not. I don't know if it's just me, but do you think that..." May trailed off to find the right words in order to hide a secret that she was just about to blurt out, "do you believe in destiny?" May blurted out with uncertainty. May looked at Ash nervously as she waited for this answer.

"I guess, I do. Although I never really gave it much thought but then again I don't do much thinking unless something important is on the line."

"Would you believe, that somewhere in history, our past lives were somewhat connected somehow?" May questioned as Ash deeply thought about the question with what May said about them being best friends right off the bat, and how it took less than a morning to get along with each other, Ash agreed.

"Yes, but why are you thinking about this? We really shouldn't be talking about the past when we should be talking about what the future holds."

"Why shouldn't we be talking about the past?" May argued. "Right now, all of the good times we have had are in the past. Why do you care about the future when all it's going to bring is the bad?"

"But the future will also bring good times that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. The past has already happened, and no matter what we'll do we can't fix our mistakes or bring back those good times. We have to cherish the times now and make no matter what happens in the future, a good thing."

"The future is unpredictable." May sighed as she looked at the sea ahead of her. "And it might throw you down to a point where you can't make something positive out of something bad. I know because I was like you before until..." May trailed off as she bit her lip and Ash firmly placed his hands around her shoulders.

"I won't let what the future brings to me drag me to the ground. I will have, and had, events that will me down to what will like the point of no return but then my sheer determination will allow me to survive in those situations and I make it positive." The trainer looked deeply into May's sapphire eyes. "Nothing will bring me down, and if you follow my lead, nothing will bring you down either." He spoke confidently and calmly. Both Ash and May felt a new, yet familiar, sensation pulse throughout their bodies and when they locked eyes each other; they saw events in the past.

May felt like Ash has given her a much-needed scolding to make her realize that she needed to cherish the time she had now. She felt like any of fears and uncertainty about the future had been washed away with Ash's words and the fear she had once fear suddenly became excitement. The uneasiness that May felt of Ash not being able to protect her had been removed from her thoughts and feelings. Although May will make any future, at least try to, event into something that should be remembered for a long time, she will still hold the events of the past to help her in some situations. In those events, May now knew that Ash would help her through it and he would try to be comforting to her as possible. The idea of Ash being by her side through the times, both bad and good, both made them smile.

"Thank you Ash." May spoke as the two trainers continued to gaze into each other's eyes. A single centimeter separated their noses, with Ash's protecting hands still cupped over her shoulders. The scene felt surreal to the two with how the world around came to an abrupt halt. To them it felt like they were only ones that were not frozen in time on the beach.

"No need to be thankful. I just wanted you know that I will always be there to protect you, even if it seems like you don't need it." Ash reassured May of her original thoughts. Another wave of a new yet normal sensation surged through both of their bodies.

Unconsciously Ash's careful hands slid down May's slender arms and they came to a stop on her petite fingers before they interlocked with each other.

_A man looked down at his and the woman's waist, with a separation between the two that was so minute. At their sides was one pair of interlocked hands. The man's eyesight scanned all over the woman's body until her azure eyes locked with his dark chocolate eyes._

_Their faces inched together with closed eyes until their lips melded into each other. The man's sturdy hands grasped the woman's wide hips and pulled them in and skyward until their hips matched with each other. The woman dug her toes into the sand below to give her the height to match the man's lips._

_As the fireworks and the people around them stopped cheering for the married couple, the man pulled back and thought about what propelled them to get to the point where they were at now._

_"I still can't believe everything we went through," The man whispered as he brushed his hands through the woman's silky mahogany hair._

_"I know," The woman returned the action as she slid her hands through his tough charcoal mane._

When they opened their eyes again, everything seemed to be normal. No odd sensations, no lapse in time, and nothing out of the ordinary. However, the vision of either the past or the future remained ingrained in their minds. They looked at each other and gave a facial expression that was seemed to question if they shared the same dream. They nodded in agreement and tried to make sense of the vision.

"Was that something out of the future or was it something from the far past?" May questioned as her eyebrows furrowed when she tried to remember the clothing of the people.

"More importantly, are we supposed to represent the people... kissing?" Ash blushed at the thought of kissing and scratched the back of his head with his trademark sheepish smile. May was thoroughly confused on how Ash could be so serious and say very wise words but had no clue in romance.

"Yes," May blushed but for a different reason than Ash. To May, it would mean that she would have to admit she loved Ash but it didn't matter to her because of the crush she had on the man. However it would also mean constant teasing from her friends if they ever found about it. That was one of the fears she had that was not resolved in Ash's speech, her fear of getting rejected by him or her friends rejecting him for her.

"Oh..." Ash looked at the ocean tides rising up and down and the people who looked like they were having a good time. May didn't want to try to figure out the details of the vision and left it alone... for now, mostly to prevent any further embarrassment from either party. May decided to think of a different subject to converse on until she remembered the contest.

"Ash..." May spoke as Ash turned his gaze from the beach to May. "I think the contest will start soon."

"What contest... oh yeah right... I race you there!" Ash bolted off in the wrong direction and when he didn't hear the clanking of May's armor behind him, he looked back to see May picking up a full ahead of steam down the brick road that led into the town.

Ash quickly decelerated before he turned around and narrowly dodged a cyclist. He drove his body low to the ground as he accelerated to his full speed, and followed the path May took. With a quick cut to his left, Ash faintly saw May in the distance.

In a desperate attempt to beat May, he put his head down and sprinted all-out. Unknowingly, he ran right past May who was coming to a gradual halt.

She yelled something in order to warn him about the street sign, but nevertheless he didn't hear and ran straight into the sign, all the while taking the sign down with him. His head dented the sign to bend over his head and he flipped his heels over his head and the sign split the middle of Ash perfectly. Ash struggled to stand up and the middle of his body felt violated like never before. His back was also very sore.

"Need help?" May giggled at the struggling Ash. She grabbed his hands and helped the boy to his feet. Ash looked around dazed and after a while of unintentionally groping people and some vicious slaps, Ash came to a stop.

"What happened?" Ash questioned as he rubbed his crown with one hand and his cheek with the other.

"You challenged me to a race but..." the brunette decided not to finish her sentence. She knew that Ash knew what would come next.

"I know that but what happened after?"

May made a gesture that basically told him to look around and so he did. He looked at the people, who gave him death glares, and then he looked at the ground and flinched at the sight he saw. The sign might as well have broken in half and there was a print of his body embedded into the concrete, albeit the print was very faint.

After seeing the sight, Ash felt very embarrassed, and to Ash the understatement of the year, messed up. His legs felt wobbly and he couldn't control any of his movements anymore. His legs buckled and the rest of him soon followed unconsciousness.

May knew that the he simply had a concussion, a very serious one at that, but she still had to take care of him, although in the far depths of her inner thoughts, she was laughing her ass off at his misfortune.

Reaching into her pockets May enlarged the pokeball by pressing the only button in the middle of the machine. She threw up into the air as bright red light was released. The red light quickly formed the shape of her Pokémon, Dragonite.

Holding Ash in her arms. "Take him to the poke center, I'll catch up soon."

Dragonite gingerly picked Ash off the ground before he left in a whirl of heavy wind, leaving a strong gust of wind behind her. She flew high into the sky to look for the trademark red roof and the white "p" of the Pokemon Center. May sighed and shook her head before she went off to find the Pokemon Center herself.

May jogged down the way she came and hoped that she remembered where the Pokemon Center was. May looked around to find an adequate path to jog down. She spun her head around like a patrat looking for a predator; she deemed one of the side alleys to be the safest.

Unfortunately, the path she chose was the shadiest.

Many crooks and troublemakers snuck back into the shadows when they saw May's shadow. May thought they were scared which only gave her more reasons to walk down the path.

Paranoia soon followed when she saw shadows move from building to building, following her every move. May tried to catch one of the people in the shadows but they always disappeared when she turned her head, which sent shivers down her spine. She didn't know if it was the temperature itself, which was an odd thing in of itself, or the fact she was crept out.

However someone who sounded much like a small whirring machine, if they listened closely watched the shadows themselves.

May, after a while, the brunette quickened her pace and went down random smaller alleys, sharp turns and narrow paths, but the shadows and the machine were still on her tail. May didn't watch where she was going and in the end, became cornered. Four highly scary thugs appeared when May came to that realization. When May tried to go for her pokeball, the 'ringleader' stepped out from the shadows and froze her with purple aura energy. May struggled to break free but the others and the ringleader chuckled at her futile attempt to break free.

"Silly girl..." The leader smirked and stepped right behind her before he pressed a cold purple dagger against her throat, "You really think you can break free from a master psychic." The psychic tried to read her mind but was utterly confused when he couldn't, "No matter," the psychic spoke. "I will still be able to do anything I want to you before I give you to Sabrina.' The man turned her around and started to pry the armor off her body with his psychic energy. However somebody from above stopped him.

The mysterious person jumped down from above and caused a minor tremor around them. The impact it made forced the psychic to lose his grip on May and May quickly took full advantage and held the ringleader by his neck with the dagger. However since May's style wasn't to kill, she incapacitated the man. He fell limply to the ground and May stepped back with disgust.

Torture and sexual abuse was apparently where the being from the roof drew the line. It was covered in armor, quite similar to May's, but instead had a full helmet and had black digital camouflage as the design. The being was over a foot taller than May and a half of a foot taller than the smallest thug. The name on its left breastplate read 'Alpha-001.'

"It would be advisable to close your eyes, Miss Maylene Maple," The voice in which Alpha spoke bordered between human and computer with how emotionless it sounded yet there was a tinge of regret apparent in it as well. The other four thugs didn't back down from the hulking seven foot three hundred pound man machine.

They circled the machine, man, and resorted having their long swords drawn out because when they tried to tear apart Alpha with their powers. The being easily shrugged the attacks off. Unwittingly, the men attacked at the same hoping overwhelm the man.

Alpha dropped low to the ground and allowed one of the psychics to impale his comrade. Stuck, the 'traitor' tried to pull his sword out, but only to be thrown like a rag-doll into the other two psychics by his shoulders. The force of the throw triggered the release of the sword from the almost lifeless psychic, and the sword went spinning in the air and landed near May's feet.

The three psychics sprawled against the brick wall staggered to get up. Unmerciful, Alpha picked his boot and slammed the temple of a psychic against the wall and made a gut-wrenching noise. May now wished that she listened to Alpha. The two remaining looked up the man in rage, and tried to impale Alpha mindlessly. Alpha swept his leg under one psychic and pushed, punched, the man with great force and made another sickening impact onto the hard concrete below.

The last man went berserk, both caused to fear and determination to defeat Alpha. Alpha grabbed the sword mid-swing, as if he clapped, and bent it so that the tip of the sword would prove ineffective. Alpha took a hold of the sword before he threw it carelessly to the ground. Cowering, the last man took multiple steps until he forced his spine and skull to meet the brick wall. Alpha took as many steps forward and when he took his final step; the psychic covered his face as if to protect himself. To put it simply, he couldn't.

May took a few steps towards the strange being. Her steps were small and in tiny intervals. She was uncertain and cowered in fear. She had no idea if this strange machine was on her side and only defeated the troublemakers so it can go and defeat her and fight her in an abusive manner like it had done to the men that caught her. But after a few steps she quickly backtracked into the back of the alley. Her back collided with one of the walls, causing Alpha to turn and look at her.

Swallowing hard, "Who are you?" May looked up from her position of cowering at the back of the alley.

May felt violated, even though the ringleader removed the collarbone armor. Her stomach was in turmoil because she didn't want to see the massacre that happened before he eyes. She wished that Ash hadn't been so dumb but at the same time felt like it was her fault that she and Ash were in the position they were in now. She blamed herself for not telling him that he was going the wrong way. Now, with how Alpha looked at her, she felt like he was going to take her as well.

And, to her, it was all of her fault.

"I am the answer to your question," Alpha looked at May with the ringleader draped over his shoulder before making his leave out of the alley.

May continued to stay at the back of the alley, feeling violated and fragile. Not only did she felt her life on the line by the psychic who placed a knife against her throat but an unknown being come down to her aid and saved her by smashing the men against anything with a hard surface. She slowly slid down the wall and only stop when she hit the ground. She held her hands near her heart before embracing her knees tightly. Holding her tears back, May placed her forehead against her knees and closed her eyes and hoped everything she had witnessed was nothing but a horrible dream.


	6. Chapter 6: The Beginning of Corruption

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon **

**Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, and the late update****  
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**Enjoy.  
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Chapter 6: The Beginning of Corruption

_Water cascaded down the large boulders, and created a peaceful sound. The bright green grass gradually turned into dark rich soil that separated the river and the long grass._

_Flocks of Pidgey and Pidgeotto flew in the sky, chirping gracefully as they passed over the scene. Bug type Pokemon also sung their tune for what seemed like the first time that year. The warm gentle wind blew on the trees and the primeapes basked in it._

_Fish like Pokemon jumped in and out of the clear blue river, as if they were putting on a show for an audience. They repeated the action for a few times before staying under the water for the rest of the day._

_However the audience was that of one._

_The man stood at the top of the waterfall, looking over the peaceful setting with a leg perched on top of boulder and a straight confident back. He could hear the loud crashing sounds of the water falling down towards the rocks beneath him._

_As he took multiple deep breaths, he emanated a gentle gold and white aura. The aura faintly glow softly all around his body as he continued to focus channeling his aura._

_The color his aura matched with his apparel. He had a white and gold pinstripe fedora that covered his raven mane and matched his trousers. He wore a pearl trench coat that was slightly open to reveal a pure white button-down shirt underneath. He had a golden tie along with the same color suspenders. His shoes were all white with the exception of his golden laces. To many people he was considered their guardian angel._

_He did it with a smile, even if he knew what was going to happen._

_However this serene, peaceful place came to an abrupt halt to where the sun was perched. The odd thing about the sun was that it was cut in half, with the other side faded into the moon._

_That side had stormy gray clouds with lightning bolts striking surrounding it every second. Thunder claps could be heard from a mile away and anything that was on that side was colder, gloomier and less…beautiful. Life got a whole newer meaning on that side._

_The ground was cracked from the arid weather; no plant life could be sustained. No Pokemon were in sight. Humans were hardly seen and if there was one, they would trip and scatter their way either towards you or from you. Normally it would be the latter and running away seemed their only logical reason. Only the brave would dare to walk to the other side and speak to their own race._

_Where the river once gracefully flowed, a dried bed of stones took its place. The banks were caved in. what were once lively and healthy plant life had withered and died near the bank of the river. Their only source of life had faded away._

_The land looked like a tree was just uprooted with how the land was turned up. However the tips were hardened, and if someone fell, it would lead to sure death. Corpses of Pokemon and humans alike littered these crevices. It was a depressing sight to watch. Fearows and Skarmorys scoured the sky instead any of the majestic birds that normally took flight._

_The landscape gradually became a craggy mountain. On a certain ledge that rose to the same height as the waterfall, a man with crossed arms stared at the earth below with an evil smirk. When he took a deep breath, he sounded demonic. He emanated a pitch black and blood red aura when he raised his arms._

_Oddly enough, the evil man was dressed exactly the same way as the 'guardian', except that instead of white the evil man wore black and instead of gold he wore red. To an untrained eye the two men were complete opposites, however in actuality, the two men are the exact same person._

_The man spoke to one other; locked eyes with each other but their intended target were not each other but the person who created them, "What are you going to choose?" One of them spoke. "Well, I do need an answer."_

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The moon was apparent, although faint, in the sky in the violet, orange and crimson sky. The wind picked up a little from earlier but the cool breeze felt nice in the heated sun.

A trainer in armor shuffled her feet on the cobblestone path below, with her arms crossed. She looked down at a loose pebble that was in the process of kicking.

She didn't bother to look up to see who the work boots that passed her belonged to. However when the person completely passed her, she looked over her shoulder to see a man that was the same height as Ash and had the same color hair.

May shrugged the similarities off and continued on to the Pokemon Center to check on him, Ash. When the electronic doors opened, Nurse Joy or Chansey were nowhere to be seen. Again May shrugged it off, thinking that she was taking care of a person or Pokemon. It didn't seem a huge issue to worry about her in a negative manner. After all, Ash wasn't the only person she and her Chansey had to look after.

May turned down the hall way and staggered to where she thought Ash would be. As she passed a room, she felt something odd emanating from it. May turned her torso to see that two pitch black feet, paws, were on the ground right behind the door.

May spun on her heel to check what it was, and since the door was already open, she nudged the door open. May was in a world of shock when she the door revealed what transpired.

A blue and black fox laid on the floor, slightly breathing, with a Pikachu held to tight to his chest. Both Pokemon were clearly unconscious, but what surprised her the most, was that the Pikachu belonged to Ash. May looked further into the room to see Nurse Joy draped over the bed, lying on her back with Chansey's back pressed against the far wall. The brunette gasped over the scene.

May kneeled and pulled Pikachu from the Lucario's clutches carefully before running over to Nurse Joy to see if she was okay. May placed Pikachu gently onto the bed before heading over the pink haired nurse, and gently a few fingers on her throat. Thankfully the nurse was breathing.

May spun around and dropped her backpack onto the bed, on the other side of Nurse Joy. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw what was written on the wall with what seemed like blood, however it smelt like tomatoes and a few of the words were misspelled and some of the 'a', 'e' and 'r' were backwards. May was amazed, not to mention confused, with how he could teach that to a Pokemon and have good grammar, however the note was still unnerving.

_"To whom it may concern;_

_My master, Ashton Satoshi Ketchum, is currently corrupted by an unknown entity residing in his mind. I suspect that he may terrorize the town of Terracotta. However an Elite trainer by the name of Maylene Maple may be able to stop him, it would be advisable for the reader to find her. I will give a description of her._

_Maple is about five foot nine and weighs about one hundred and forty pounds. By many of the male human species, she is considered to be attractive and quote, "she is big chested with wide hips", unquote. Maple has sapphire eyes and mahogany hair. She is currently wearing orange, black, gray and emerald armor with a large Rayquaza design down her spine._

_Concerning Chansey, Nurse Joy, Lucario and myself; we're all fine, and we're going to be unconscious for the rest of the night._

_To Maylene Maple (if you happen to read this first);_

_First off I would suggest that you would stop blushing. Second of all, it would be advisable to place me next to Joy, and drag Lucario away from the door. If you passed a man with boots on your way here, then that would Ash. I'm not quite sure where he would be now, but you need to find him and talk him out of his current dark state._

_I don't much time left of consciousness but I will write one last thing; if you think any of this is your fault, then you would be wrong._

_Good Luck."_

May was in total shock. She couldn't believe all of this had happened in such a short time. She wanted to hurt herself that the man she had passed earlier was Ash. She couldn't believe she didn't recognize him at all. But like the blood-like words written on the wall he was in a dark state and it would be hard even for his mother to see that was his son.

May looked back at the Pikachu, who she just noticed had dried blotches on his paws. She was confused where the Pikachu had gotten the ketchup until she looked down at the ground where there was a cracked empty bottle of ketchup on the floor.

May was confused with the whole situation. Many questions popped into her head. Where was Ash? What did Pikachu mean by him being corrupted? Why was he going to terrorize innocent people? However May didn't know if the people he was going to terrorize were innocent or not. She didn't care if they weren't innocent, but either way May knew that she had to make sure Ash returned back to his regular intelligent yet dense self.

May walked over to Lucario and bent over to pick him up by his armpits. She carried him to the bed and gently placed him on the bed. She deeply sighed and walked over to the entrance and looked over her shoulder, everyone was alright and at least safe. May softly smiled before jogging out of the room and out of the Pokemon Center.

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She heard grunts and growls coming from a dark alley way, she shuttered when she thought of her previous experience. She hesitated to run back into the place of the shadows. However when she heard Ash's voice near in the alleyway, she instantly thought she could make it to him safely.

Before she could act, Ash walked out of the alley way. He looked different, but the biggest difference was that his hair was straight that covered his pitch black eyes. He wore a cold creepy smirk that made May shutter. But she knew she had to be strong, she needed to bring back the old Ash as soon as possible.

"Hey babe," May was stunned when he heard those words come out of his mouth. His voice wasn't caring or warm like it was from before but instead cold and demonic like. It was like the words Ash spoke was an insult of her being a woman. His words showed absolutely no respect to her.

How could she stand up to him? He was another person trapped inside of Ash's body. She feared this person and insecure around him. But with Ash she felt loved and no one would hurt her because he would be there, protecting her at all costs. But with his dark side exposed, nothing was too sure but May knew she couldn't back down. There was absolutely no reason to.

She wanted to spin on her heel and run as far away from this new 'Ash' as possible. However there was a voice that emanated from her suit that told her to stay and help Ash, and it sounded quite like Delia's voice.

_"May..."_ The voice began. _"I know you want to run and hide but just listen to me. Do you want Ash back to his normal self?" _May mentally agreed to this voice as 'Ash' took a few steps forward. _"I know you can't stand up to him in a fight because when this happened to his dad, he would always beat me. I need you remind him of his past, of his fallen friends. Say that they wouldn't want him to be like this. Relate to him. Say the name Aaron." _Soon the voice of Delia faded as with every step forward Ash took, May took a step back.

"Do you know anyone named Aaron?" May questioned with a forced sweet voice and hoped that 'Ash' bought it. Ash stopped in the stray light in the alley way, for a short moment Ash's attire looked like something from thousands of years ago.

"Yes." His voice deepened as 'Ash' stared at the ground, May took one step forward seemingly not scared from the threatening voice he put out. "Why do you ask?"

"I want to know more about him." May spoke as Ash spun on his heel and looked into the sky where the faint moon was perched in the sky.

"Why?" A sudden burst of dark aura emanated from Ash and May shielded her face in order to protect herself. May wasn't scared anymore, at least not by the new him. In fact she was more determined to save her dearest friend.

"I want Ash back." 'Ash' shot May a look when he turned his head to face her, the blackness in his eyes but they were not as vivid as they were before. "I miss him." May added.

"You shouldn't. Ash is a wimp, a coward." 'Ash' spoke in disgust. "You do not need a foolish coward like him in the world. Consider what I am doing a _favor_."

May's anger quickly rose after the words 'Ash' had spoken. "And what are you? You terrorized innocent people who are far weaker than you! You wouldn't dare go after anyone stronger than you because you're afraid of getting beaten!" May made a mental note to thank Delia when she saw her again, but she still wondered why she could talk to her without 'Ash' hearing. 'Ash' spun around to meet May, with an inch separating their faces. He looked furious while May smirked.

"Oh yeah? Then watch me!" 'Ash' turned around once again and sprinted into deep into the town' alleys, where most of the hardened criminals stayed. May did her best to keep up with him but since his current persona was able to use aura, he was faster than her. However she saw that his eyes were almost back to their usual color.

May cursed about being in armor that weighed half as much as she did. Ash was able to make quick turns while May couldn't because of the way her armor was built.

Eventually 'Ash' lost her, but at his last turn, and May slowed down to look at her surroundings. She was amazed, she was at the Contest Hall yet 'Ash' seemed to disappear in plain sight.

"Aaron... Ash... Ash?" May shouted but it was to no avail, but she faintly heard a maniacal laughter that belonged to 'Ash'. Sighing deeply, and feeling both defeated and exhausted, May staggered into the contest hall because she felt like she couldn't find or did she desire to.

"Boo..." May nearly jumped out of her own skin because of how bad and how suddenly 'Ash' scared her. His laughter caused May to give him a death glare as other people walked as far away from him as possible. It was like they were avoiding the black plague.

However when she looked him in the eye, they were his usual chocolate brown eyes but instead of being caring, his eyes showed a lot of fear. It wasn't known if the sight of May caused him to fall unconscious or the fact that he just returned back to his normal state. Ash fell into May's arms and lucky enough for May she was able to hold him without falling to the fall.

After May's heart returned to a normal pulse, she deeply sighed as she readjusted holding the boy and holding him tightly. She embraced him tightly and closed her eyes and wondered about the 'Ash' she had witnessed earlier. Did she really save Ash or will she have to see that horrible side of Ash again. For her, May prayed that was the last time she would see Ash in such a horrible condition.

May left Ash in the coordinator's room where she would ask him many questions later on. But first she had to make her contest appeal. She made constant looks back at Ash to make sure he wasn't to go anywhere. Convinced that he wasn't, May made her way to her contest.

She looked at her number and realized that she was lucky to be there in time, and Ash was one of the last ones to go, which meant that he had plenty of time to regain consciousness and when she finished with him, he would lose it and regain it again.

She bounced onto the stage when she heard the announcers call her name. Her heart fluttered but it was normal for her, because she was never quite used to a big crowd or crowds in general.

"Take the stage Eve!" May grabbed the ball of her waist, threw the red and white ball, and released her Pokemon in one underhanded motion. As the red light emerged, the Glaceon rolled on to her back and back up once again all the whiling emitting ice crystals.

"Use shadow ball!" Eve shot many balls of ghostly aura high into the air, and she shot them in a pattern that resembled the guardian of the sea.

"Now freeze them with short bursts of ice beam!" Eve quickly created ice in her mouth and shot shorts yet powerful bursts of ice at the shadow balls. Luckily, the frozen balls stayed in formation when they came crashing down.

"Quick signal beam!" Eve just waited until May finished her commands until she immediately made the frozen shadow balls exploded with a rainbow beam. The balls almost exploded simultaneously however they still projected Kyogre well. Interestingly enough the only real difference between a picture and her showing was that it looked it was shiny because of the hue of the shadow balls.

Everyone roared at her performance and the judges gave her an excellent score. The crowd were on their feet, some clapping at such a wonderful performance and some added a wolf whistle or too. The judges were also on their feet saying that beating such an amazing performance would be difficult.

May looked into the crowd, scanning for him. He was there; he waved and smiled brightly at her. Seeming to forget everything that transpired earlier. But did he really forget? Or did he not truly know what he was doing? Either way she wanted answers, but she still smiled at him and waved back. May quickly made her way off the stage and headed her way over to him.

Ash disappeared back into the crowd as May ran off the stage. Ash reappeared moments later at the end of the poorly lighted tunnel; he still had that goofy smile apparent on his face.

"Hey May! You did great out there!" Ash exclaimed while May blushed. May didn't believe at first she could pull off such a great performance.

"Thanks but I don't want to the talk about the contest right now." Ash's expression went from happiness to confusion when May replied. His brows furrowed and seemingly asked 'why?' which his expression. "I want to talk about what happened."

"What happened?" Ash kept his confused expression while May nodded in understanding. May now knew that Ash had no recollection of his memory of earlier. If he did he would have not placed such a warm smile earlier in the crowd.

"You were corrupted by someone in your mind." May thought of Pikachu words that were written on the wall with his favorite ketchup. "I think you might have knocked out the entire Pokemon Center staff and Pikachu."

"Oh..." Ash trailed off and looked guilty while May felt terrible that he had no idea what happened to him. "I guess that is why Pikachu or Nurse Joy isn't here?"

"I think so."

"So can you tell me who I thought I was?" May's eyebrows furrowed because she didn't think of a correct way to say it or explain it well, and Ash saw this. "I was evil wasn't I?"

"No... But yes. You were an evil good guy. If that makes any sense." May tried to explain but just made it confusing for everyone involved. "...I don't know."

Ash didn't know what happened earlier but he could still feel the sadness and regret virtually emanating from her. She backed up against the nearest wall and slid her body down to the floor. Looking like she about to break. Ash took a seat next to her as she stared into her hands.

"Is just wasn't what happened earlier, was it?" Ash put his fingers under her chin and moved her head so that he could gaze into her sapphire eyes.

"No..." May shook her head and she went back to staring at her hands.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ash questioned with a soft voice as May slowly nodded. "Can you start from the beginning?"

"Yeah..." May sighed and took a large deep breath. She looked at Ash deeply before nodding. May soon began to speak what had happened so by the next time 'Ash' appeared they both knew what to expect.

* * *

Either pm me/write a review if you want clarifications


	7. Chapter 7: The Terracotta Ribbon

**Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon  
**

I had a little fun writing this chapter so** read**(hopefully enjoy) and **review**(hopefully).**  
**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Terracotta Ribbon

"I'm sorry..." That was the only thing that came out of his mouth. He was otherwise speechless. And the worst part in May's story was that he couldn't do anything to help or protect her. He couldn't remember anything before the beach speech. His mind was blank whenever he tried to think about that. His mind remained empty on the subject.

"Will Ash Ketchum please come on to the stage!" An annoying announcer with vivid amber apparel announced as the auspicious trainer sprinted onto the astronomical stage all the while waving to the audience.

Ash didn't want to leave; he wished to stay in the tunnel, comforting her. But she pushed him, almost quite literally. And as a result, Ash had to go.

Ash grabbed a single orb off his left wrist plating, and side armed it all the while pressing the small button in the middle. An Infernape emerged from the red light and spun into the air in a fiery azure tornado.

"Dig!" The Infernape cork-screwed himself into the ground, and it disappeared in a whirl of flaming a trail of dust behind him.

"Power glass the inside." Neither the judges nor the audience knew what Ash had meant by power glassing the ground but May did, somewhat. She guessed that's what happened when the water gracefully flowed over the reflective ground earlier.

"Jump out and use hidden power! Full power!" Taz jumped out of the ground from the middle of the stage, where the center of the pokeball used to be. Earlier, the hidden power didn't look as powerful as it did now, May thought it had to do with the 'power' in the power glassing. The ground ruptured as the water rushed through the stage, revealing the glassy ground. This time, the Phoenix had the right orientation; it was a Phoenix, right?

The crowd and judges stood there, whether from awe or from how bad it looked. One of the judges removed his sunglasses and seemingly mouthed 'my mew'. A moment later the audience erupted, the noise deafened everyone and when that happened, the temporary-deaf people became deafer. There were many cheers, wolf whistles, and many different types of clothing... mainly the female variety.

One of the judges spoke... no shouted into the microphone and called Ash the trainer to outdo if they wanted to face May.

Ash, while clutching his head, ran off the stage with an ear-to-ear grin on his face. He saw May running off towards him, but there he saw a smile as big as his on her face, and that made him feel better.

"Now it is time for the two finalists in tomorrow match is going to be." Both Ash and May looked on with anxiousness when the judges revealed that the finalists were going to be announced. However everyone in the crowd would be surprised if the finalists weren't those two. "Congratulations you two! See you here at 9:30 tomorrow morning."

"Rematch?" They looked to each other when their faces appeared as the two finalists. They both nodded in agreement.

"Let's get out here before anyone else does." Ash suggested, and when May didn't budge, he took a hold of her hand and dragged her away from the screen and out of the stadium. Or was she actually looking at the large auburn moon?

"Huh?" May questioned when she realized she was gazing into his chocolate eyes, his worrying eyes. She wondered where she was, she had just came out of a miniature day-dream. Ash shook his head as if to say 'look around', and that's when May regained her senses and remembered why she stared at the moon.

"Why were you looking at the moon like that?" Ash questioned as the brunette bit her bottom lip. At the moment, May didn't feel like telling Ash that the 'moon spirit' was in her direct familial lineage. Because Ash had been quiet when she asked him about the Rayquaza designs on her armor, she didn't have the need to tell him.

"I wasn't, let's just go to the Pokemon center." May snapped and Ash got the message of just drop it. Because May had got lost earlier, Ash took May by her hand and led her to the Pokemon center. Or so she thought.

When Ash led her to the beach, where the sand met the water, she asked, "Why are we here?"

Ash looked at her and gave her a warm reassuring smile, a smile that would make any living thing feel comfortable, protected. "No reason," Ash answered as a warm ocean breeze blew past them, May looked at the starry night and saw the enlarged auburn moon. Ash glanced her and looked worried for a moment, "thinking about something?" He asked.

"I guess," May shrugged her shoulders before she sat down on the sand. May brought one of her knees close to her chest, and started to unbuckle one of her boots. She motioned for Ash to help take it off, and when he did, he almost fell back into the water. The same thing happened with the other side. "Don't you love the feeling of your feet digging into the moist sand?" When May smiled, her toes clenched the sand, the scent of the ocean, along with the full moon and Ash being right next her, she felt at home, where she belongs, her natural place in the world.

Ash lunged down to the earth, and picked up a handful of moistened sand. Even if it wasn't his feet, he still enjoyed it. He stood back up, and rotated his torso so he could look at her, "I guess, I'm not complaining but why are you smiling like that?"

"No reason," May copied Ash's 'reason' from earlier and used it once again. Shrugging his shoulders, Ash stepped back and carefully placed himself on the ground. Unbeknown to him, he put his hands in the exact same place as hers.

"Sorry," Ash stated as he quickly retracted his hands from her soft smooth hand. When he glanced over at her, she wasn't staring at the moon anymore but the ocean.

"Do you know that at the bottom of a Hoenn sea, there is an underground cave that contains the guardian of the sea? It is said that it protects an ancient stone, and that stone is an important key to unlocking a secret to the future." May spoke in a low serious manner, and Ash took in everything she said, thoroughly intrigued in her story. "Only two people in history saw and touched that stone. However once they went back to the surface, their people were getting attacked by a race from outer space. The information they got from the stone, only helped in the aftermath but not during the attack. They went back and were told by the guardian to look for the other two ancient stones. I don't remember the specific names of the stones but in the end they did find them although it was too late to help anyone. Do you know who the two people are?"

"Aaron and Deyanira." Ash answered but he had no idea how he knew the female's name, but he did. He said it without hesitation, and he wondered if it had something to do with the demon that lived inside of his mind.

"Mm-hmm," May yawned and leaned onto his shoulder, seemingly not caring if Ash would accept her. Ash didn't care and he just let her stay on his shoulder. His heart raced a million miles per an hour and he hoped May couldn't sense it.

"Why did you bring it up?" Ash looked down at the exhausted woman, who had a slight smirk on her face when she her big sapphire eyes looked up at him.

"I want to find that stone, I want to help people survive in the future." If it had been years ago, when the only violence people saw was the occasional battle between two overreacting trainers, people would've laughed at her for thinking that something will bad happen soon. Now, people were preparing for the worst, people knew that something terrible was going to happen. They just didn't know when.

"Me too..." Ash sighed and rested his head onto hers.

* * *

The tip of the sun was barely over the horizon when the two trainers' woke up. The male had two hands propping his head up from touching the sand, while the female was a foot away, in the fetal position with her hands clasped together protecting her face from the sand.

Ash sat up and lightly shook May, and she responded with a swat. He did it again, and he received a hard slap, "I'm awake, you know."

"Sorry, I think we should head back to the Pokemon Center so we could sleep there until later." Ash yawned as May nodded, but she didn't appear to move at all.

Ash sighed, and thinking it would be easier just to stay there. And so they did, Ash laid there, patiently waiting for her to wake up and the sun to ascend higher into the sky.

When the sun was halfway up in the eastern part of the sky, May decided it was time to wake up. She asked Ash for some assistance with her boots, and he obliged, but not with the same demeanor as before. Mostly because his back is sore from sleeping on unstable ground, and partly because she kept him awake with her snoring.

"Morning," May yawned as she stretched out her arms before she decided to put her armored boots on. Ash looked at her and shook his head, wondering if she did that just in case she would have a sleep advantage over him.

"Now do you want to go to the Pokemon Center?" Ash asked, slightly annoyed at her antics. May nodded and motioned for him to help stand up. With a deep sigh, Ash begrudgingly helped May.

"Sure, what time is it?" May questioned and didn't notice the irritation in Ash's demeanor.

"Look at the sun..."

* * *

"We have to hurry up!" May exclaimed when she looked down at the people flocking inside of the Contest Hall, and she glanced over at Ash who was heading inside of the open stadium with his garchomp and one tired Pikachu on his shoulder. Instead of entering the building like a normal person, May, with a heavy sigh, followed in Ash's footsteps and entered through the top.

"Look at their grand entrance!" The announcer from yesterday boomed into her microphone. The crowd looked at the two trainers who jumped down from their respective pseudo-legendaries and landed perfectly aligned with each other at the Pokemon sphere. The crowd, who smelled like coffee, roared at their entrance. At this point, the two trainers thought they cheered for anything.

The referee shuffled to meet the two trainers at the center of the painted pokeball, he told them the rules and to shake their hands. After that was finished, the ref backpedaled to his position while the two trainers sprinted with their heads scanning the audience.

"This one vs. one contest match between elite trainer May Maple from Petalburg City and elite trainer Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town will now begin!" The referee announced as May took a pokeball of her belt, and Ash from his left forearm. At the same time, they threw their Pokemon out. A hulking Blaziken emerged and a battle-scarred Sceptile materialized out of the blinding red-light.

"The match between May Maple's Blaziken versus Ash Ketchum's Sceptile will now begin. Start the five minutes!"

"Kelly, Start off with a fire spin from your legs!"

"Boss counter with energy ball."

The Blaziken jumped high into the air, and brought both of her legs to her chest. She kicked her feet out as two long streams of azure flames intertwined with one another as they raced toward an abnormally large ball of yellowish energy. Kelly landed gracefully on the ground after she did a back flip in the air.

Interestingly enough, the fire spin wrapped around the energy ball as it kept flying towards Kelly. Kelly had a leg already blazing with fire and she just waited for an order to come out of her trainer's mouth. Boss predicted what Kelly was going to do because of her flaming leg, so he gathered mini sparks of electricity on his bushy tail.

"Blaze kick!"

"Return it with electron tail!"

It seemed like Boss had the advantage because he had the second hit and the Blaziken didn't have enough time to recover. Kelly sprinted to the flaming energy ball with her right leg blazing. She swept he foot under the ball when it got close and rocketed it towards Boss' face. To the normal human eye, it seemed like Boss didn't have a chance to hit it, but in actuality Kelly didn't have time to recover. By the time Kelly hit the ball, Boss was already in the air, getting ready to swing his metallic tail that was crackling with electricity.

Boss twisted his entire torso as he cocked his bushy tail back to hit the fiery energy ball. When the ball was halfway between the two Pokemon, Boss was already in the midst of swinging his tail forward. Less than an eighth of a second later, Boss beamed the ball back towards Kelly who was just finished landing from a show-off jump.

The only the crowd saw was the explosion in Kelly's area. They looked at the board to see that she wasn't knocked out or was hit; the points were at a deadlock. Pretty much everyone but the two trainers and their Pokemon were shocked that Kelly wasn't hit.

It's been only fifteen seconds, and this was easily one of the best battles that some of the crowd members have ever seen. However they didn't see the battle between the two when they first met, now that was something to remember for a lifetime. The match between Boss and Kelly lasted for over fifteen minutes. Boss and Kelly could've gone for longer if not for the stomachs of their trainers.

"Hey May! Do you want to end this match soon? I'm getting kind of bored." Ash shouted to his opponent, he was getting restless of staying in a place for more than a day. Unless that place is home, even then he doesn't like staying for too long. He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Pikachu was in the same opinion.

"Sure!" May exclaimed, although her reasoning was not the same as his. She was just exhausted from the past events. Everything from the ursaring attack, to training to her contest, having a heated conversation with Ash, worrying about him when he got a concussion, having a small band of psychics killed by a mysterious stranger, and to having Ash turn dark. Although if she wanted peace, then there would be no place left for her to go.

"Sunny day!"

"Solarbeam!" Ash ordered but he muttered "but don't fire it..." so only he and Boss could hear.

On top of the natural sun, Kelly created an artificial sun in the arena that brightened the stadium even more than what was expected. Everyone tried there best to not look up. May and Kelly expected Boss to fire the solarbeam but May quickly recognized his tactic because she bit on it in the last battle.

"You too, Kelly. Charge a solarbeam!" Now that was overkill. Natural sun, artificial sun and now the solarbeam energy. Did the two want the stadium to explode? Ash's eyes widened and turned back to the crowd and motioned them to get out of the way.

"Boss, activate Overgrow and use Frenzy Plant!"

"Now Kelly, activate Blaze and Blast Burn."

There was many ways to fire a frenzy plant. Many different starters had different tactics, but usually they only had a certain one. May knew this and thought there was no way that the roots can stand up to fire of that magnitude. However she soon realized she was wrong when she saw Boss turn his back with his six seeds and tail glowing. Not only did he have a root and beam method via his tail and seeds, an emerald aura glowed around his body.

Kelly knew she had to step her game as a crimson aura blazed around her body in the same fashion as Boss. She clutched her claws close to her chest and readied her blast burn. Both Pokemon took several deeps breaths until they opened their eyes.

The judges and the audience were worried for the Pokemon because of what they thought was unneeded power and it would kill the two. The judges were about to end the fight but the trainers quickly explained that they won't die because they faced tougher attacks than that, such as a head smash from an enraged aggron (Kelly) or a fire blast from Moltres (Boss).

When the judges accepted their explanation, both Boss and Kelly released their attacks.

Vines and thick roots shot out of the tail of Boss, and six large beams of a rainbow hue came out of the seeds on his back as they tangled with each other and sped towards Kelly.

Kelly rotated her beak so the white flames out of her mouth could intertwine with one another. The spiraling flames were thick and seemed fit the spaces of the frenzy plant beams. The palms of her hands faced outwards as she created fire whips to defend herself against the vines and roots.

The audience watched in awe as the rainbow, azure, pearl, and emerald attacks melded in with each other without actually exploding. The duo would make an amazing contest duo because of the synergy. How well they would work with each other. It felt like they did that on purpose, so the other wouldn't get hurt more than the other. Even if Boss did have the type disadvantage.

Both Pokemon clenched their jaws as they waited their opponent's attacks to hit. They didn't scream or growl or yelp when the attacks demolished their bodies. They just took the whole attack to prevent any misfire before they went down to the ground. But before they hit they ground, the referee called the match over and called it a tie. In the same amount of time, the two recalled their Pokemon and took another ball. The called out their flying Pokemon so they could escape to the Pokemon Center after they each receive a ribbon.

If the battle hadn't been a contest battle but rather a life or death match. There would be nothing but a Blaziken filled with holes and a charred carcass.

The two jogged to the middle of the battlefield, and once again avoided the flaming upturned ground. The main judge cautiously walked on the ground as well so he could give them their ribbons.

"May Maple and Ash Ketchum congratulations on your tie. I would love to give you both a ribbon..." The judge opened the case that revealed a singular pink and golden ribbon. Both the expressions on their faces dropped even if they were still excited for their win... tie. "But as you can see, we didn't plan for a tie. So we can only award one of you the ribbon."

Ash whispered something into Pikachu's ear, and agreed, and then whispered the same thing into May's ear and she too nodded. He then looked to the judge, and spoke, "you can give May the ribbon."

"Very well." The judge presented the ribbon to May, and she carefully plucked the ribbon out of its case and held to Ash's face, who just smiled. "Would you like a picture?"

"May?" May smiled brightly and nodded, as the judge motioned for a cameraman to come over.

They draped both of their arms over the others shoulders, with Pikachu lying on his side on both their arms. They held out the ribbon with the other hand. Carch and Storm both stood next to their respective trainers and ... smiled. Dragons should never smile, never a good thing.

Soon after the picture was taken, and the trainers took off into the air, the roar of the audience died down tremendously as they exited the stadium in a rush.

* * *

"So how do you like the room, Ash?" May came out of the bathroom with her armor off and was in a white dress that she bought on the large cruise ship. The spaghetti strap dress went below her knees and was wavy at the bottom. She decided to change let her hair down to her shoulder in a wavy manner.

She walked to where the bed was in their room, and saw that Ash was already asleep, laying exactly in the middle of the only bed of the room. She cursed to herself that she should've hurried up at the Pokemon Center so they could've got two beds in a room instead of one.

"I'll just go get some food..." She muttered to herself and was supposed that Ash didn't move at the sound of food. She shuffled to the door and silently opened and closed it so the prince could get some sleep. After all, she was the reason why he was so tired.

* * *

Somewhere over the eastern Kanto skies, a large orange dragon soared. Wanting to help his master before it's too late.

* * *

**A/N:** You can all guess(I assume know) who (^) he is.

Electron Tail = Electricity + Iron Tail


	8. Chapter 8: Team Aqua

I think I put I don't own pokemon enough so this will be that last one so in case of any of you are wondering i don't own pokemon.

**Read**(hopefully enjoy) and** Review**(hopefully)

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Chapter 8: Team Aqua Intro Part 1

"Ash!" The blue-eyed brunette pounded on the cabin door with her knee, the reason she didn't have a free hand was because of what was in her hands, pizza and Combusken wings. She heard a slight shuffling of feet behind the door as he heard the door knob open only to see Ash with more tangled hair than from before.

At the sight of her, Ash fell backwards, anime-style, onto the floor. May didn't know whether to take it as a compliment or insult, but either way she had to be careful with stepping over him. Which was an option Ash didn't think of when he fell nor would he ever think about doing that.

May cautiously side-stepped over Ash's frozen-in-time body, and placed the food on the one the small wooden desk that was near the large television. The two lucked out with how luxurious the room was but not with how many sleeping places that was there. At least the bed was a king bed.

By the time Ash recovered, May was halfway done with her share of pizza and wings. May looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow, wanting an explanation why he fell.

"Umm... How did you get your armor off?" Ash gulped as May shrugged her shoulders but had a facial expression that said '...Well, what do you think'. "You look nice," he blurted and May looked pleased with the answer she received.

"Thank you very much Ash... now about the bed. Do you want to share it?" May questioned and with how May acted recently, Ash felt like whatever he said was the wrong answer.

"I'll take the couch," Ash replied as he picked up a large piece and stuffed it inside his mouth.

"Why not the bed? It's large enough so we can enough space in between us," May spoke with a voice that made anyone want to agree with her.

"Are you sure?" Ash questioned as May slowly nodded whilst wiping any sauce off of her face, "Okay I'll guess I'll share the bed with you."

"Now that's settled what do you want to do now?" May said as she set her used napkin on top of the ravaged wings. Ash grew a huge smirk on his face, which in turn scared May. She cursed in her mind for asking that question, and that she should've suggested her own thing.

* * *

_Almost there._

* * *

"Finding Team Rocket is your idea of fun? _Really?"_ Ash pondered her question for a second before he nodded. May let out a deep sigh when he kept dragging her through the cargo hold.

"Ash, my friend." A mysterious masculine voice greeted Ash and stepped out of the shadows. The man had royal blue hair that hung just above his shoulders. He wore a black trench coat with a blood 'TR' on his chest that covered a charcoal button down shirt with a crimson tie. He wore simple black dress pants and shoes.

"Long time no see Ash," Another mysterious voice spoke.

This time the voice seemed to be feminine. A woman with a jet black skirt that went just above her knees stepped out along with her partner. She had maroon hair that cascaded down to her lower back. She wore charcoal boots that went below her knees and a black leather jacket with the same blood 'TR' on her chest that covered a white undershirt.

Ash strolled over to the two and gave James a firm handshake and Jessie a quick hug. He glanced at the two in their eyes before he spoke, "Nice to see you too. Ready to mess with Team Aqua and Magma?" He then looked back at May who was thoroughly confused on what transpired, she thought that Team Rocket were bad guys. "By the way, May meet Jessie and James. Both gave a quick handshake to the girl." Ash introduced May to his friends and vice versa through the use of his arms.

"Did Giovanni give you any places that we have to take down?" Ash returned to the real reason why they had all met in the cargo hold. May stood silently next to Ash, seeming scared and so she held Ash's arm.

"Unfortunately, no. But he did give us names of people who would help us with taking down both Team Aqua and Magma." James spoke and May grasped Ash's arm harder, Ash cringed and wondered if she was afraid that her father was connected to criminals. So Ash spoke up for her.

"Who?"

"Professor Birch of Littleroot Town. Gym Leader Norman Maple..." May's fear came true; her father was connected with a criminal organization. She spent her whole life hearing her father talking and acting to protect his family and city against organizations. Now he was working with one. She never expected it. Her heart dropped and she bit her lip hard, releasing a horrible metallic taste in her mouth.

Ash felt terrible for asking who, but he felt like she was going to have to learn the horrible truth sooner or later. Just like when he found who his father was. Having his mother never talk about the bad things about Team Rocket's leader or having the two most influential Team Rocket members help and watch over him gave Ash enough of a reason that his father was somehow connected with Team Rocket. He never expected it either.

Then another unexpected thing happened; the large ship was hit on one side by large jets of water and a torpedo. The ship engine's sputtered for a second and soon became lifeless. There was no other sound other than the water trying to break inside of the cargo hold. The tipping caused large crates to slide down, and the ship sounded like nails on a chalkboard by this movement, to the other side of the boat but by this time, the small group was trying to get topside. They heard large heavy footsteps that seemingly silenced any screaming.

The metal floorboards creaked again as the boat was bombarded from the other side. The inner hull of the ship couldn't retain the amount of water from entering the lower decks. The water gushed through the enlarged holes in the steel and soon flooded most of the lowest decks.

The trainers looked back to see water chasing after them, trying to trap them in the watery grave. They didn't look back any longer when they flawlessly sprinted up the staircase. At this point, the water was slowly rising instead of the flash flood like before.

They heard the same large heavy footsteps echo through the corridor; continually causing women and children to scream for their lives before unremorsefully losing them seconds later. Ash poke his head out of the staircase doorway; he saw a hulking metallic dinosaur that was dripping in blood, stomping its way towards them. It was quite similar to May's Aggron except it actually took part in doing its job of being a steel-type Pokemon - emotionless. He saw a bipedal lobster knock in one of the doors, and silenced any of the cowering inhabitants.

At the end of the hallway, he saw smirking aqua members with their arms crossed, seemingly enjoying all of their death and destruction that they were causing. But what they forgot was one important thing, and they couldn't take down one of the best hand-hand fighters in the world.

"Aggrons, Crawdaunts and others. Their trainers are at the end of the halls." Ash whispered to the other members of the group. Ash carefully took two balls of his forearm before he enlarged them. The others followed suit, wanting to wait for his command. "We'll wait until the Pokemon enter their next room. Then we'll wait for them to search for us." A second later, the Pokemon reappeared before quickly disappearing into the rooms ago again. "Now!"

All of the trainers released their Pokemon, and told them to check in the rooms. Ash was the only one with more than one Pokemon out because of his Pikachu, but Pikachu decided to stay with Ash. Croc and Carch emerged from the red and white spheres that came out of Ash's palms. Jessie released her Arbok whilst James released his Arcanine. May left her pokeballs along with her armor in their room.

* * *

A fearsome feraligator circled around an Aggron in one of the rooms, both reptile Pokemon hissed and snarled at each other. The Aggron lunged at Croc first with his sharp claws that could cut the metal floorboard below as it was a piece of soft foam.

Croc rotated his body sideways so he could avoid the fatal claws but instead hit by the Aggron's tail on his way by and rammed his back spikes into the bedroom wall. He fell backwards through the wall and stayed down on his fours with his maw wide-open.

The armored beast stomped towards Croc and raised his thick tail so he could inflict more pain to his opponent. Croc took a deep breath of air before he spewed a wide jet of high-velocity water at the jaw of his opponent. The Aggron couldn't protect his underside from the high-intensity water and tried to cover his face with his claws. Finally Croc stopped his assault and waited for the next move.

Aggron took one heavy step toward Croc as the Feraligator shot himself towards him as he covered his shoulders in a watery aura. Aggron roared when he grabbed Croc by his shoulder and throat and ripped him to the ground. Aggron raised his tail once more and this time connected to the underbelly of Croc. Croc hissed in pain as he went on all fours before trying to get up.

The iron armor Pokemon bent down and grabbed Croc by the neck and dug his sharp claws into him as well, drawing blood. He lifted Croc and pressed him to the wall, his head glow with a whitish color and he cocked his head back.

_"Too much time,"_ Croc thought. Or he was dumb enough to think that Feraligators were ranged fighters rather than physical.

The same big jaw Pokemon simultaneously drove his foot and icy hand into the under belly of Aggron. Aggron let him go and staggered a few steps. "_Perfect amount of time"_, Croc once again thought.

Croc opened his mouth and let loose a cannon of ice at the Aggron. He intentionally aimed for the eyes and that made Aggron raise his claws to protect them. Aggron was thrown in the air and twisted himself so that he would land face first as Croc quickly got on all fours and reared his body back to strike.

The agitated alligator snarled before he lunged at the airborne Aggron as he based his sharp fangs that were covered in ice crystals, trying helplessly to remove the thick layers of ice on his claws off.

In mid-air, the big jaw pokemon latched onto the back of the Aggron, and dug his icy fangs deep into the side of his opponent's neck. Both Pokemon jumped on the floor a few times due to the force of their weight before they came to an abrupt halt against the furthest wall.

Croc loved the metallic taste that entered his mouth. Croc let out a blood-curdling screech when he stood on top the lifeless Aggron.

* * *

Ash and the others smiled when they heard his roar, only if they could've saw what happened, and the smiles on their faces would've been larger.

Ash poked his head out of the doorway, to see only Aquas walking towards them with their swords drawn. Unluckily, the only people with weapons were Jessie and James. But Ash still had his armor, and May didn't. He needed to get the second highest deck fast; he didn't want to lose his mother's armor or May's Pokemon.

"There is four of them and two of us," James began as Jessie whispered something into his ear and he added, "We'll distract them and you can make a run for the staircase, we'll follow you when we're done."

"No, I'll help you." Ash stated and defied their suggestions; he didn't want the Aquas to grab a hold of May. Both of the rockets sighed but didn't force Ash to do anything.

* * *

Carch entered a room where he saw a shadow go into. He cautiously searched around the room, but not above. That was where a Cacturn was preparing his arm.

The Cacturn kept moving along with the mach Pokemon as he went deeper into the room. The Cacturn dropped down on top of Carch and tried to dig his needles into the rough rubbery skin of the Garchomp.

The Cacturn wrapped his arms and legs around the land shark as they both fell onto the ground. The Cacturn continually sucked the life force out of Carch. The mach Pokemon struggled to break free before he realized that it was useless. The Cacturn thought he was going to be the first one of his kind to kill a Garchomp.

Carch's struggle was becoming weaker and weaker by the second until he became limp. The Cacturn thought he won, and dug his needles once more into the seemingly frozen body of Carch. The Cacturne smirked as he stood up and turned his back to Carch as he gave out a mighty screech that wasn't as impressive as Croc's. At that moment, Carch smiled.

He stealthily rose, but staggered, to his feet. Carch sharpened his wings so they were like daggers, and there were small crimson flames that silently burned on the tips. Carch widened his arms as he caught up to the slowly-walking Cacturn.

In one instant, the Cacturn dropped to his knees and fell face first onto the cold metal floor. His cauterized neck wound preventing any blood from seeping out.

* * *

Ash held May's hand as they ran up the multiple flights of stairs to get to the top. May, if not for the fact that they could die any second, enjoyed the time that Ash protected her by holding her close to his body and her hand even if it wasn't necessary to hold her tight. But by that point Ash released Taz and so he and Pikachu charred any Aqua member they came across.

His other Pokemon knew to keep fighting and get to the top, that's what yelled before he went into the stairwell.

Jessie and James knew this as well.

Both trainers and their (just Ash's) Pokemon were gasping for air near the top. They trudged their feet up the last flight of stairs, and took positions outside of the open doorway that led to the hallway of their room.

Ash barely put his head outside the door and his eyes widened at the sight of it. His heart and thoughts raced, and his blood pressure built up.

The same feelings he got when the demonic part of his mind took over his guardian angel part. Ash looked at the brunette who was about to scream when she saw his eyes and the dark aura flashing on and off around him, he spoke in voice that sounded like an inhumane caring voice, if that was possible "May don't be scared." He waited for May to nod, "and promise me that you won't speak when I fight."

"I promise." May whimpered and tried to keep her hands over her mouth. She was noticeably shaking, and she scooted herself back against the corner of the stairwell.

"Good." Ash stood up and showed himself in front of the creature before him. He mumbled to himself one last thing before he confronted the beast, "This is going be one hell of a fight."

"Agreed." The other thing heard him and spoke. To May, somehow it didn't feel like that the other thing wanted to fight. Maybe, that it and Ash's demon were rivals that spanned over numerous lifetimes. "Haven't seen you since you were Aaron."

"Yes... I think I won that fight, didn't I?" 'Ash' questioned the other being, and it hummed loudly as it pondered Ash's question. "By the way, why are you working for Aqua?"

"One... I assume you did. I 'died' before you 'died'. And second... I'm not really working for them but rather paying a debt to your 'father'."

"So why the hell are we standing here and not killing Aquas!?"

"Beats me. And tell your girl that Lucario, a female mind you, will help her put her armor back on."

"She's not my girl!" 'Ash' quickly defended.

Are they friends? Or friendly rivals? Those were some of the many questions running through May's mind. This '_Ash'_ acted completely different than before. Maybe it was because of that other being that made him like that. But he still had the completely demonic voice that made her chilled to the bone.

"You bitch. You heard everything." Everything was back to normal. But she heard a faint mumble from the other being that said '...you don't want her ending up like Deyanira, do you?' as the two jumped down to the top deck.

May told herself not to care what '_Ash_' said because that wasn't him, that wasn't who he truly was. She thought maybe '_he_' only came out when his head was injured or when the real Ash saw something that reminded him of his past incarnates.

* * *

James' Arcanine roared like a zealous lion when he entered a room filled with a pack of three Mightyenas. The Mightyenas were scrawny but they worked well together in a pack.

Arcanine encased himself in flames that matched his fur color. His fangs were covered the same way. The Mightyenas did the same; they cloaked themselves in a darkish aura and their bared fangs, followed.

What they didn't know, was that Arcanine was not pleased when Pokemon played dirty against him. His powers became stronger whenever a Pokemon infuriated him by making a cheap hit.

The Mightyenas circled around him all the while barking and snarling. Arcanine responded with a mocking roar.

The Mightyena to his right side lunged at his ankle and bared his fangs deep into his fur and muscle. Arcanine shook off the Mightyena with a simple shake of his leg. He cocked his leg back and struck the recovering Mightyena on the top his skull. Arcanine was furious.

Arcanine closed his eyes and inhaled a large amount of air. Some smoke escaped from his nostrils when he exhaled. His eyes looked like they were filled replaced with flames.

Arcanine dropped his jaw as azure flames escaped from deep inside him; the flames encased the Mightyena in front of him and instantly incinerated anything in the path of the flames.

Including the hull itself, he was lucky that they were above the sea, and then he turned to the next Mightyena who was frozen in fear. The hair on the Mightyena's neck stood straight up, and Arcanine simply breathed some vivid blue flames on him and pranced out of the room, smiling.

* * *

"So you're May, right?" The Lucario telepathically asked as she stood up and extended her paw out. May shuffled her wait and looked down at the Lucario and her paw as she firmly shook it. "I'm Lucy."

"Nice to meet you Lucy." The brunette nervously greeted.

"Yeah... I'm supposed to help you with your armor, right?" Lucy didn't wait for May to answer as she continued and skipped to May's orange armor, "right, is a person in your mother's direct lineage - Rayquaza?"

"Uh... No. It belongs to my-."

"Ash's mother, right? ... Yes." Lucy finished May's sentence for her, and May didn't look pleased with it. "Now please get undressed. We need to get down to the top deck before Ash, the rockets and... Him before they get hurt from the top Aquas."

May obliged and set her dress neatly onto the bed. That was when Lucy virtually became a tornado with May's plating and armor. Lucy was finished in no time, and she didn't miss anything or put things on May the wrong way which surprised May.

Lucy grabbed all of May's pokeball and pushed them into May's palms. Lucy backed May up to the window of May's room as she looked up to May and gave her last words, "I'll be down soon, I'm going to take care of all of your stuff and put them on my and his private ship. Your rooms won't be as big but it will more luxurious. ... Now go."

Lucy pushed May out the window that led to a twenty foot drop to the deck. Thankfully May landed okay because of her armor as she released her Pokemon, except Kelly, during the short fall.

Soon the Aquas and their Pokemon swarmed her. Her Pokemon formed a circle around, protecting her at all costs she wasn't healed yet. Storm created a ring of dragon fire around her trainer so no one could get past, and if they did, a supercharged blizzard and solar beam waited for them.

She looked around the cluttered deck to see Jessie and her Pokemon fighting, 'Ash' and the cloaked being, and James and his Pokemon. They were still winning but fatigue started to get the best of them.

Everyone fiercely fought the Aquas, unlike before, the Pokemon on the top deck were commanded by tougher trainers and were stronger themselves.

May thought the only way they were going to win was if a super-powerful Pokemon that matched Godo's close combat strength, Goon's durability, Pikachu's range and quickness.

She soon heard a blood-curdling screech, and looked up to see a large orange dragon dive-bombing the deck.

_'Ash_' looked at_ 'his'_ dragon and smirked, just like old times. The cloaked being dove out of the way from the supercharged azure flames that incinerated multiple decks of the ship, and anything within a large radius.

The '_heroes'_ took advantage of some of their surprised foes and humanely put some of their opponents to sleep for eternity.

However one aqua wasn't fazed at the sight of the behemoth, and he took a gold, black and white sphere off of his belt, and enlarged it. He pressed the minuscule button in the middle as a monstrously sized teal and maroon dragon took form.

Both dragons sized each other up and locked their eyes before they took flight and fired a respective flamethrower up into each other's general vicinity.


	9. Chapter 9: Wake Up

Chapter 9: Wake Up

Salamence tried to intimidate Charizard with his appearance, vice versa. However their tactic didn't work due to them both being fierce dragons. It just seemed natural for dragons to have duels against one another.

The teal dragon was the first to attack, he took a deep breath before emptying the move and it came out as a spiraled pulse of purplish-blue fire. Charizard recognized the attacks as dragon fire, so the attack he would counter with wouldn't be melted. Charizard created light blue, icy color, orbs from around his mouth area and shot them at the pulse, hoping to cancel out the attack. Of course Charizard was right; the ice orbs went directly into the center of the bulb part of the pulse and froze it. Salamence quickly stopped his attack and swooped downwards whilst the flame dragon flew higher into the sky, hoping to be lost in the sun.

Salamence created a stormy weather ball and sent it towards the sky. The stormy ball expanded into dark gray clouds and cackled with electricity, and soon enough a heavy downpour came down. The pseudo-legendary could easily track the flame dragon now but when he saw Charizard, his body was covered in white sparks like how the storm clouds he created were. Charizard did a u-turn so Salamence could see him smirking upside down and his lower jaw hanging down with a ball of white energy formed at the back of his throat.

It was now or never, Salamence closed his eyes and inhaled. The two Pokemon were about to get ready to end each other, or at least that was what they thought was going to happen. Charizard drew near to Salamence at the same time he opened his eyes and jaws.

An intensified cannon of water was fired out of the dragon Pokemon and it hit Charizard in between his eyes, point-blank.

But Salamence wasn't prepared for the shock of his life, quite literally. Hundred thousand volts of electricity coursed its way through the body of Salamence and temporarily paralyzed him. As a result of both moves, both Pokemon were incapacitated and forced to the ground. However Salamence dropped straight down while Charizard arced down and had more control, but there wasn't a lot to begin with, of where he was going to land.

Charizard opened his eyes right before he crashed into a boat below, and spread his wings as far as they could go. The impact of the quarter-ton behemoth destroyed the control deck of an Aqua ship. The flame Pokemon, after a while, began to move and staggered to stand to his feet, and after momentary blaze activation, he was as good as new.

On the other side of the cruiser ship landed Salamence on another Aqua ship, destroying the controls of it like Charizard had done. Now both of the Aqua's ships were immobile.

At the same time, Charizard was regaining consciousness so was Salamence and his paralyzed body. The electricity exited the dragon's body and he decided to rejuvenate himself with a royal and crimson aura, making him quicker and stronger. The dragon aura around him faded before he decided to do it once again, and repeated it until there was no more aura to use for the day. This action wasn't unnoticed at all.

Charizard decided to do the same thing and since he knew he couldn't stand up to one hits, he beat his belly and curled himself into a ball with a white and green shield over him, seemingly waiting until he heard the Salamence take flight again.

Moments later, Salamence was heard roaring in the skies, and Charizard intentionally missed a flamethrower that shot passed the dragon Pokémon's thick skull.

Each Pokemon had the same speed, and roughly the same defenses. But one specialized in range and the other in physicality. Salamence knew this and hoped that Charizard had terrible accuracy, but he knew he was wrong when he saw Charizard form three fire balls and hit three Aquas in the head below. Not to mention Charizard knew how to control electricity into distance attacks, a talent many Pokemon would love to have.

_''Who exactly does this Charizard belong to? I didn't obey my master for this fake shit.''_ Salamence thought, not knowing that Charizard was infected by Pokerus and was the result of a champion's, one of the most powerful people in the world, Charizard and Dragonite. And his trainer was raised by Professor Oak, one of the best trainers in history in his prime, and a legendary person. So it would seem to unknowing person, or Pokemon, that Ash's Charizard was made in the lab. But it wasn't, it still had trouble with Gym Leader's Pokemon.

_''But shouldn't his fire be weakened from the rain?''_ The Salamence thought as he saw Charizard arrogantly spitting out flames to taunt him.

The flame dragon immersed himself in royal-silver and crimson flames that signified that he wanted to go head-head. _''What a foolish Charizard,'' _Salamence thought as he reciprocated his opponent's actions.

The two dragons nodded at each other, and told each other that were the time to charge. And so they did. The flames around Charizard's left shoulder were the densest and it was the same for the crown of Salamence.

At the last moment, the flame Pokemon puffed dragon fire in between the Salamence's eyes, and the blast pushed the Charizard higher into the sky. And the confused Salamence recoiled and sank down to the earth a small ways.

Charizard instantly recovered and latched onto the neck with his claws digging deep into the armored throat of the blanked-out Salamance. With a deep inhale and then an immediate exhale with hot smoke escaping the nostrils of Charizard, out of his fang cavern spewed hellish azure flames.

The flame dragon released his grip of the over-killed dragon and roared as loud as he could, and a moment later the Salamence pan caked a Crawdaunt below.

* * *

'Ash' stepped up to face the commanding Aqua, as all of the other warriors fought their battles to the side and left the center of the ship open for them.

The sound of unsheathing swords filled the silence between the two, the only thing they could hear. Not even the screeching and roaring between the airborne dragons could be heard to their ears. His shadow eyes struck fear into the commander's narrowed eyes. 'Ash' fists were covered in the pitch black aura; with his fingers a lighter shade of black, and his opponent readied his dual curved swords.

The two gave each other a nod that signified the start of their life or death match. They sprinted at each other, all the while keeping their eyes locked with each other.

The commander contorted his body in inhuman way just to avoid the pulse of shadows that whizzed past his ears. He finished his spiral with a backhanded over-the-head slice directed at 'Ash'. 'Ash' jumped into the air as he did a back flip and spewed the same aura out of his mouth when the commander landed.

The commander crossed his swords and spilt the breath of aura directed at him when he crossed them across his body like a scissor. He swung his right sword like he would an axe, but kept his other side protected by keeping his sword diagonal. The aura around 'Ash' right fist grew darker as he jabbed at the sword. The commander's sword seemed to bend around the fist, and his mouth gaped open in surprise. But his hesitation with his left sword caused him to fly to the ground because 'Ash' had put his left forearm out to block the slash and with his right palm, hit the commander in his chest.

'Ash' stomped over to the fallen commander and towered over him, as to taunt him, before his death. 'Ash' bent down, and smirked, and once again the commander looked surprised that his sword didn't impale his opponent. If 'Ash' had not been wearing armor, he would've been stabbed in his chest and more than likely bled to death.

The commander dropped his sword as his life flashed before him. His eyes glimmered because of the wrong he has done in his life with a little good because of what he brought into the world. He was trying to make up for his little good by earning a lot of money for working Team Aqua. Now, he had no chance to make up for his wrong-doing. He muttered one last thing as he saw the eyes of his opponent lessen in intensity of his darkness,

"Please save my wife and daughter from Magma."

The intensity in 'Ash's' eyes dropped and spiked once again as he brought his supercharged fist into the air and the life of the Commander had ended.

'Ash' stepped back and turned away from the mess he just created and dropped to his knees, seemingly wanting another Aqua member to avenge their commander's death by plunging their sword into his back. Ash's eyes returned normal, and Ash's legs gave out and forced him onto the ground, landing on his back. None of his shields were active because Ash's aura had dissipated and that him vulnerable because his armor was otherwise easily penetrable.

An aqua member saw this opportunity and walked over to Ash's unconscious body, and May watched in horror as she couldn't escape her fighters to protect Ash from dying. Lucy looked on with pleading eyes from her ship and hoped that her master or someone else would save him. The cloaked being couldn't disengage his enemies, and looked at Ash and the member about to plunge his sword into the body with much dismay. Neither his Pokemon nor hers could leave their position without being killed themselves; one swift turn of their heads would prove fatal with the amount of Pokemon that surrounded them. Jessie and James were also worried for Ash.

To put it simply, Ash had no savior, or so everyone thought.

Tears welled up at the corner of her eyes, and her heart dropped. How could he die this early? He couldn't die without fighting. He couldn't die without her having someone to look over her. He couldn't die yet; they still have a long way to go.

_"Maybe just maybe..."_ May shook her thoughts from her line of thinking except for the fact that Ash just couldn't die. Not yet, not until they have white hair and aged bodies. She expected a future with him that spanned past the next five years. It felt natural but her common sense told her how could she? This early, they were still getting to know each other and not even just 'friends' yet they had a best friend connection. But she knew one thing, and that one thing was to not give up and make the best with what she has if he did die.

She closed her eyes when the aqua member began his descent with his sword. But she couldn't resist peaking and it seemed like time slowed down, everything felt surreal. She saw Charizard gracefully land behind the unsuspecting Aqua and plunge his paw downwards into the back of the Aqua. She wanted to jump into the air and do a victorious pose like she did when she won something important. Her fears of him dying faded away when Charizard swung his thick tail and spit up fire that melted metal at the Aqua members and their Pokemon.

It felt like slow motion, every Aqua member focused their attention on the rampaging Charizard. He was untouchable.

Aggrons looked minuscule next to Ash's Charizard when they tried to attack him and his trainer's body. It looked effortless when he flicked a large Crawdaunt away with his tail. He picked up Aggrons by their throat, with two paws nonetheless but still impressive, and tossed them across the deck.

_''So that is what a Pokerus-infected dragon looks like. Amazing._'' May thought and had a big grin on her face as she watched the onslaught of wimpy Aquas. However if the Aquas sent stronger troops, she would've guessed that they, the 'heroes', would've had a tougher time in facing them.

Soon enough, the remaining Aquas either jumped overboard, due to fear, or willingly gave up to be prisoners of war. But the cloaked being just sent them overboard anyway.

All of the trainers recalled all of their Pokemon, but for Ash's Pokemon, May tiptoed across the deck and picked the empty spheres from Ash's magnetic forearm plating and called his Pokemon back for their unconscious master. Except obviously Charizard, who had a pokeball necklace on him but she figured that it allowed Ash to bypass the six Pokemon in a party limit. She let Pikachu ride on top of her opposite shoulder where she kept her Glaceon most of the time, because the other shoulder had Ash's unconscious body draped over it.

There was a large thud, and May almost lost her precious cargo because the shaking the thud did to the boat but she kept her balance and staggered over to the edge of the deck. She looked down to see what made the thud and wasn't surprised when she saw Lucy, the Lucario, controlling a smaller but more luxurious boat.

May judged the distance down to the other deck to be around ten - fifteen feet, less than the drop from earlier but this time she carried Ash. May looked to Pikachu and told him to hold tight as she backed up and placed Ash into both of her arms, otherwise known as bridal style. May sprinted and hurdled over the minor fencing that kept anyone from going over board and landed on the wooden deck hard. She skidded on the deck, clutching Ash and Pikachu tight to her chest as they came to an abrupt halt on the other side of the boat, almost going overboard of that ship as well.

Neither the cloaked being nor the Rockets had a rough time getting down mostly because they didn't have two hundred and thirty pounds of deadweight on them. The cloaked being wordlessly jogged up to where Lucy was controlling the ship, but the rockets wandered over the recovering May. Charizard didn't have any trouble with getting on the deck either and smirked when he saw his trainers' predicament.

"Need help?" Jessie asked as she extended her hand to get up, and May pushed Ash off of her. May nodded as she took a hold of Jessie's hand and got up with a little trouble. "We'll show you to your and his room," Jessie stated as she sighed when she glanced at Ash's motionless body.

"Can you help me carrying him?" May sighed when she saw Ash still not moving even after all that happened.

"No..." Jessie smirked when she declined and looked over at James, who was currently petting the fierce fire dragon," but James can."

"Huh?" James stopped what he was doing and looked over to Jessie at the sound of his name, and not liking to be ignored, Charizard blew some smoke into James' face. James sighed, coughed, said sorry to the dragon and walked over to Jessie.

"Will you help carry Ash to his room?" Jessie asked as sweetly as she could, James knew that it wasn't a question but rather a threatening statement. Jessie never used a sweet voice unless she demanded something.

"Yes," James sighed yet again as he picked up the heavy young man, and received a snickering from the mouse and his teammate. May silently giggle, and figured that would be a good way to get Ash to do something for her.

* * *

"You know I can't see him until he mastered his aura and the being inside him. Every time he'll see me, his demon will take over him." The cloaked being said with an agitated voice and he finally won his argument with Lucy, the annoying Lucero, yet again.

"Humph." Lucy crossed her paws and sat down on the stool beside her master.

* * *

May's POV

Many questions ran through my mind such as why did Aqua attack? Did they want me and Ash? Or are they sadistic enough to just kill innocent civilians? Did we go into their territory without paying? I'm not quite certain, even if they are from the region I lived in for the most of my life. My parents were good at that, hiding me and my brother away from the real world for as long as they could.

I just hate it now that my father is connected with bad guys. So are Ash and his family. Now, I wondered if Team Rocket was really the bad guys in the world. Did they take the blame for everything to protect everyone from the real threats? I remembered Ash saying something about Psychics. He said that they were evil and want to rule the world... you know the typical evil motives of a bad guy. But I wondered if there was more evil to the Psychics than what Ash said. Why did Team Rocket allow their name to be ruined by covering up the psychics? What is so bad about the psychics?

I tried to ask Jessie and James but I never found them when I searched for them. But the few times I tried to question them, they ignored my question and told me to ask Ash but I replied with that Ash was still in a coma. Then they said tough luck and walked away. I don't know how Ash put up with those two fools.

Speaking of Ash, he hasn't awakened up since the day we left Terracotta, which was the same day the Aquas attacked. I and Pikachu are worried, and we stayed most of our trip to Slateport waiting for him to wake up. He never did.

I cried every night, missing him. Missed his smile, his laughter, his protection, his comfort, and most of all just himself, the way he was.

Before the attack, I never felt so happy. I didn't know why. I was happier than the first time that Brendan kissed me so long ago. It was like he, (Ash), was my other half. His strengths cover my weaknesses, and that was the other way around too. He kept me in check and I did the same for him.

Now he just rested peacefully on the bed, not moving an inch since James put him there. Both I and Pikachu were losing our minds without him being there. Well he was there but not _'there'._

On multiple occasions Pikachu shocked him in hopes of waking him, but he never did. He just lied there, having a faint smile on his face.

I asked him, (Pikachu), why he kept shocking him when he knew that Ash wasn't going to wake up. He answered me -

_''He will, don't give up''_ in his language and I was surprised that I understood him and that he sounded just like Ash would say , and I guess that's what happened when you spend a lot of time with a Pokemon. But it shouldn't have happened that quick, it really shouldn't have. But to be honest, I don't understand him fully.

I just feel so empty right now, like depressed. I mean how would you react when the only person that cared for and protected you at the moment was a couple of inches away you but you just couldn't have him, her. You wouldn't feel that great, would you? No. That's how I feel.

Yeah I knew what you probably thought - I had my Pokemon that could've talked to and played with. But no it just wasn't the same and they knew that. They had fun... damn it Ash, why did you have you have be an Arceus-damn hero?

It was too early for you do that. You didn't need to be one now Ash, not yet. But I guess you had to protect our lives.

...

As of now, both I and Ash were the only ones left on the ship. I didn't have enough strength or will to lift and carry him to a hospital or Pokemon Center just for them to tell me what I already know or I should say what Lucy already told me.

...

The cloaked being and Lucy forced me off their ship and into the Pokemon Center nearby. Of course the nurse there already told me what I already knew, he just needed rest and he would wake when he was ready.

I sat there once again with Pikachu in my lap, by his side patiently waiting.

Waiting.

Patiently waiting, waiting for his smile to return on his, waiting for his laughter to be heard, waiting for something bad to happen and he would fix it and comfort me, waiting for something scary and him to protect me, waiting to embarrass him with his denseness, waiting to engage in debates about life, waiting for him to tell stories, waiting to tell him 'I missed you' and again one of the most important things - waiting for him to return to normal. That's what I waited for - him.

With tears in flowing freely down my face for the umpteenth time this week, I staggered to my feet and dragged them to his bed. I crawled into his bed and buried my face into his chest to mumble one thing,

"I'm begging you to please wake up soon, Ash. I miss you."

I half-expected him to move at the sound of my voice, and I guessed Pikachu did too, because he had the same pleading eyes as I did when I looked up to Ash's peaceful face.

But yet there was nothing.

"Why can't you wake up?" His chest muffled my screaming question that won't be answered.

I knew he wasn't going to wake up anytime soon and I and Pikachu knew that very well. To accept that was like pulling my heart out of my chest.

Painful.

**End of Section I: Kanto**

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and review it.

Charizard using electricity(thunderbolt)? I thought fire pokemon would able to control electricity because of the firebenders in the avatar series. But to sum it up: Charizard is a badass.

Every pokemon will get a spotlight every once in a while, but some more than others.

As for Ash's armor, the technology is only activated through the use of aura - such as the shields, enhancements(reflexes, speed, mobility, strength)

Once again thank you to **Midnightmoon602** for **beta-reading,** be sure to read and review her stories as well.

Next chapter will be the start of the new section - **Section II: Main Hoenn**


	10. Chapter 10: A New Fire

Starting today there will be updates every Friday or Saturday

Remember to either PM or review if you want anything clarified

Read & Review. Enjoy or not.

Chapter 10: A New Fire

* * *

_North of Littleroot_

_A Few Weeks Later..._

* * *

The deciduous forest above Littleroot was made by humans because of the evenly made spaces between the trees and the straight lines. This allowed the sun to shine through the cracks of the canopy and make everything clearer for the inhabitants. Although some things should not have been clearer for the mental images of some people, like May.

"Ash, come here!" An older female teenager cried to her companion when she stumbled upon a grotesque human corpse that was contorted in many different ways. She saw this many times before and was desensitized to rotting corpses but why she yelled was a different reason.

She squatted down to the corpse's level to grab the dog-tag out of the dead soldier's bony hand, and when she did so the corpse leaned forward, away from the tall birch tree. She gasped and the movement of the soldier made her fall backwards onto her tailbone. After the shock of the sudden movement, she looked at the filthy dog-tag and received big surprise.

The soldier was an Ever Grande Knight, one of the best warriors and survivalists in the world, on par with the Indigo Plateau Rangers and the Sinnoh Bravehearts. So the fact that an Ever Grande Knight was stripped of his armor and presumably killed by a bigger force frightened May. On further inspection on the body, she only knew to do one thing, run. "Ash, we need to go!"

"Yeah!?" Ash questioned as he found her yelling and when he looked at the corpse, he cringed at the sight out it. He knew what May knew too as being from Kanto; he knew when an Arbok poisoned someone or something. He muttered "shit!"

When May bolted off in the opposite direction and he quickly followed. He soon heard a large hissing noise emit from the trees overhead, and when he looked up he only saw the purple-scaled tail of the Arbok. While he was running to catch up with May, he decided to let out an equally scary Pokemon as an Arbok. He tried to reach for Gira's pokeball but he tripped over a large tree trunk, or that was what Ash thought. The pokeball rolled just out of reach from Ash and he tried to crawl to it, he was trapped by something, something huge.

"Ash!" May screamed at the top of her lungs when she looked back to see a twenty foot purple snake started to slither on top of Ash's body.

Arbok coiled its tail around the ankles of Ash and tried to constrict further up but it soon let go when Pikachu immediately let loose a cannon of electricity at it. The bolt temporarily stunned the snake which gave enough Ash time to lunge for Gira's pokeball and release her.

"Thanks buddy," Ash spoke to his best friend as Tyranitar formed just in time to protect Ash from being bitten. Gira had stepped in the way at the same time as throwing Ash against a tree. _"I should have stayed in an Arceus-damn coma". _Ash thought to himself as he tried to get on his feet, but he just couldn't until May hurried over and help him stabilize himself.

"Hey Pikachu, do you think you can send a signal out to Charizard? I think Arbok has back-up..." Ash whispered into his small rodent's ear on his shoulders as he jumped to the nearest tree and scurried up it in a matter of seconds. "May, I think you should release Kelly... Right now," Ash suggested quietly as he felt more enemies incoming just when he saw the smirk on Arbok's face as its skull was crushed in the claw of Tyranitar. May silently nodded with his command and grabbed a white-and-red sphere off her belt before she released her Blaziken. Ash looked to Gira and said, "Are you ready for another round?"

Tyranitar simply smirked.

Ash and May heard hissing and snarling coming from all directions as they decided to unsheathe their weapons in case these Pokemon have a trainer. They agreed to buy weapons from an Oldale weapons-smith, Ash bought a small six inch dagger and a long sword with a golden hilt that went from the middle of his thigh to the ground while May obtained an Ebony bow with a thirty-arrow quiver.

May was a superior archer because that was the Petalburg soldiers were best known for, that army had enough archers to blot out the sun. This intimated any bandits or criminal organization like Team Aqua or Magma from entering the outskirts. While Ash learned swordsmanship skills from Professor Oak, a former Indigo Plateau Ranger Elite, although the rangers today and fifty years ago were leagues apart.

May drew an arrow from a quiver and studied anything that didn't move in between anything that swayed from the crisp breeze cautiously, but her efforts turned up nothing. She sighed and looked to Ash, "I don't see anything."

"You shouldn't... Gira use earthquake to force them out but don't do it until we get up in the trees," Ash commanded as he searched for the nearest climbable tree. He found one and hopped one on of those branches while took a glance at May. He extended his hand as if to say 'need help?', and May accepted it before she was pulled up into the lowest branch with some effort.

"Thanks," May mumbled. Feeling that the branch they were standing on could break at any point, Ash decided to jump to a higher spot.

Gira glanced at Ash and he nodded to say 'Do it'. With quick thinking Kelly jumped onto the nearest tree to prevent any damage from the deadly earthquake that was more like the move 'fissure'. Gira closed her eyes so she could feel the vibrations from underneath the ground, and with a sudden movement she dug her tail into the ground before she twirled to get more power. The result of the action was a straight-line tearing of the ground in one direction, the direction of the dead Indigo Plateau ranger. Anyone in the path of the this opening, 'fissure', of the ground plunged to their deaths and it just happened that Kelly sprinted across the tree branches in order to get out of the deadly wake.

Gira only killed one Arbok and a Mightyena out of the multiple Pokemon enemies that surrounded them. At least none were behind them and they had reinforcements in a small electric mouse and fierce flame dragon. "I think I'll stay up here, you know for the better vantage point," May stated as Ash dropped onto the same level as Gira and Kelly.

"Got it," Ash said as soon as he turned around he heard a sizzling sound go past his ear and into the heart of a man dressed in red and black attire. May is so different with a weapon... Maybe because she feels weak without one and when she has one she feels invincible but not overconfident either... To be honest I didn't think she likes death, or she doesn't like up close confrontation... I have to ask her about that later... Ash wondered as he gave her a quizzical look to which she replied with;

"He was part of Team Magma. Team Magma is a crime syndicate which is made up of criminals. I kill criminals. ...But not people connected with them" May defended herself with unarguable logic.

Soon enough another Magma member appeared from to find his partner dead in front of a smirking Ash who at the time was simply twirling his sword, itching to fight. However that Magma wasn't concerned with Ash at the moment because they were nearly ten feet apart so instead the Magma member searched for the person who shot May. He scanned all of the trees above until he caught a glimpse of an unnatural orange thing up in the trees, otherwise known as May. He stared directly at her eyes at the same moment she released the arrow that was drawn. However before he could move, he was on the ground with no pulse left.

"There is still more left!" May yelled as she saw numerous shadows running towards Ash, and at that point she had no more room for error. "Kelly... You know what to do!" She barked as her Blaziken shot her a quick look and a thumbs-up. "Ash, I'll just support you from here!"

"Alright!" Ash grunted as he narrowly sidestepped a charging Camerupt. 'I hope we can hold off until Pikachu and Charizard get back... Why the hell are we on Magma's hit list?' Ash thought as he yet again rolled out of the way of a behemoth but this time an Aggron.

As the Aggron shot past him, Ash plunged his sword underneath an armor plate. The Aggron snarled in pain as its icy blue eyes stared into the depths of Ash's auburn ones. The Aggron let out a blood-curdling screech as it tried to impale Ash with its sharp horn with a lunge. Unsurprisingly, Ash once again dodged the hefty dinosaur but this time Ash tripped backwards over a large root. Aggron stomped over to Ash and picked him up by the throat. Aggron's sharp claws drew blood as it constricted Ash's blood flow. Ash held onto his neck, trying to pry the steel claws off his neck.

May couldn't help him because she dealing with her own problem, an Arbok trying to climb up the tree she was perched on. May, rapidly shot arrows into the hardened scales but it didn't do anything fatal. May was soon running out of tree to climb and the Arbok was showing no signs of exhaustion or injury. However she did have help in Kelly; Kelly abandoned the fight she was having with a Camerupt and Machoke. Kelly whipped Machoke into the Camerupt in order to buy her some time. Kelly backed up to give her some room to sprint and in an instance she leaped onto the Machoke's head then onto the Camerupt's hump before she latched onto a tree.

She climbed up the tree with no effort, much like a Primeape, and searched for May. Arbok was one branch below her and she had no more room to climb. Kelly ran onto on the tree branch, leaped to another until she arrived at May's tree. Arbok coiled up to strike and that was the moment that Kelly dove from her tree down to the May's. The second before the Arbok's fangs bore deep into May's thigh, Kelly encased herself in fire and tackled it. May was utterly surprised as she heard the hissing of the Arbok all the way down until she heard a 'thump'. Kelly, with her ability to absorb large amounts of shock, stood up on the Arbok's ripped in half hood and shook the impact off. The Blaziken looked down at the Arbok and kicked it one last time to the head to make sure it was dead. Kelly gave another thumbs-up at May before she returned to her original fight.

Ash on the other hand wasn't so lucky. He had just been thrown onto the ground barely breathing, although it was right near his sword. The Aggron called over its trainer and kicked the sword out of arm's length of the fallen teenager. Ash felt like he was going to die, he hadn't suffered this much pain in his life, either emotional or physical. Yet he knew he wasn't, the Aggron could've easily killed him but it didn't. May saw this action but her initial told her to wait until the Aggron's master to come over to Ash and say what he needed to say but heart told her to drop down and rescue him. This wasn't as rational as waiting it out by her logic was that if the Magma made any movement that threatened Ash's life, then she would kill the Magma right there.

Ash had clouded vision when he saw a crimson cloaked man stroll in between all the battling, between a flamethrower or sharp rocks sizzling through the air, Pokemon being slammed in the ground and creating shockwaves.

The man was unfazed.

Ash tried to sit-up but because of the punch to the stomach from Aggron earlier, he couldn't. In fact anything he tried to do become a0 painful task to complete. The man drew near, and Ash couldn't do anything to stop him. When he saw a faint orange thing move from tree to tree, Ash smirked because either it was May being smart or his Charizard. The man finally arrived at Ash's contorted body and he patted the Aggron on the head while accepted it like a happy dog with how his tail wagged and the scary smile on his face grew.

"So tell me, Ash Ketchum. Why are you here?" The Magma man didn't look over to Ash as he continued to pet his Aggron.

"You're an idiot," Ash coughed in pain.

"No, you are the imbecile. You walked onto Magma territory. One of the most well-hidden facilities of Magma in fact and yet you stumbled upon it. Anyone seen trespassing this area is captured and killed. Like that Ever Grande Knight you saw earlier, he came to investigate this area and actually obtained some vital clues but alas we tracked him down before we killed him. But not before we tortured him and got information out of him. Like we're going to do to you and your friend May Maple in that tree over there," Ash saw his smirk faded when he pointed to where May used to be. His facial expression said it all, he was clearly confused and so he searched the trees for an orange speck but he never found it. He grumbled, "Shit, where did she go?"

"Right here," May smiled from the tree above the Aggron, Ash and the Magma squad leader. She had a damn-good reason to smile, she had her bow drawn and ready to go as the Magma leader looked up at her with a dreaded expression on his face. He found no use in running, she was the most notorious criminal-killer, and if any criminal crossed her path then they would be found dead a few days later. That was before she entered the Elite Trainer Challenge a year ago. Her personality to Ash was completely confusing. Out-of-battle; she was emotional, wouldn't hurt a fly, easily forgiving and easily scared but in battle she was completely different; she was ruthless, cold-hearted, and rational. After Ash saw that side of her, he would have to try his best on not seeing her any different at any normal time. Ash figured that since May put up with his inner demon, so why should he deal with her battle-persona any differently?

In a split-second, May shot both Aggron and the Magma 'boss' before she dropped to down to Ash. Other Magma members started to surround May and Ash while May dragged the now unconscious-Ash against the tree. She had five arrows left, she and Ash's Pokemon were engaged in fight or die battles, meaning they could not help May. There were roughly ten Magmas that surrounded her. All had either war axes or swords and shields, so point-blank arrows at this point were unusable. May bent down and picked up Ash's sword cautiously all the while having her eyes focused on her opponents.

Then all hell broke loose.

The Magma members decided to rush her. May dodged the first warrior, and simultaneously sliced his leg which sent him flying to the ground as she hoped she hit the femoral artery. May dipped under the second Magma's legs and quickly stood up which flipped him over on his back which was quite painfully considering he landed on his own sword. May dived to the side of the third attacker and he tripped over the second one who was on his knees after being flipped.

May rolled to her feet and ducked her head before a war axe decapitated her. Before the Calvary came for May, she had to dodge the incoming fire-bolts from Charizard and Pikachu. Pikachu created a chain lightning attack that roasted five of the remaining nine Magmas and Charizard incinerated the remaining four. Charizard flew down to May and Ash while Pikachu scurried to help Kelly and Gira with their fights.

"Thank you so much Charizard," May said as she returned Kelly to her ball along with taking Gira's ball from Ash forearm and recalling her as well. Charizard simply nodded as laid down on the ground in order to let May and Ash ride him. "Can you carry him with your claws; I don't think I'll able to keep him on." May asked as she tried to lift Ash's deadweight in order to put him on Charizard.

He answered with a simple roar, and that was the moment that Pikachu returned from finishing off the rest of the Magma's Pokemon. Pikachu prodded Ash's unconscious body with much worry to which May responded with, "Don't worry he'll be fine." '_I hope'_

May hopped onto Charizard with Pikachu on her shoulder before the dragon stood up and picked Ash up bridal-style. Magma reinforcements came in just as Charizard flew off into the sun high above the forest, all the while dodging flamethrowers and rocks.

Once in the clear, Charizard looked back at May as if to say 'where to?'

"Littleroot. It's south of here," May said as the dragon did a 360 and headed in the right direction.

* * *

_Professor Birch's Lab - Infirmary_

_Hours Later_

* * *

Ash heard whispering when he came to; he still had blurry vision from the near-death experience he had from facing the Aggron. He faintly saw two people talking near human-sized machines, the man had a white lab coat on with khaki shorts and sandals, his brown hair and beard solidified Ash's thoughts that he was Professor Birch from his experiences with Oak when he was younger.

The woman on the other hand, he didn't quite recognize yet she seemed so familiar, "_maybe because it was the way she wore or no armor hair."_ Ash thought because when his vision finally cleared up, it was May but she didn't have her signature armor on and her mahogany hair was in a ponytail with some bangs in the front hanging down. Those machines made a lot of whirring noises and were beeping frequently. The silver machines contrasted the white walls and tiles which to Ash made him think he was in some sort of laboratory.

"_What are they talking about?" _he wondered as they continually made quick glances at his mangled body before Ash decided to sit-up. Ash grunted loudly as he tried to lift his torso and swing his legs onto the ground but he couldn't due to the severe injuries he suffered.

"Don't move," Birch commanded as he and May rushed over to the hospital type bed he was on. He ordered one of his assistants to inject an IV into him along with morphine in it; he guessed that Ash weighed roughly 215 pounds but he went conservative so that Ash wouldn't overdose.

"Ash, how do you feel?" May worriedly asked just as she tried to tuck her bangs behind her ear and put a gentle hand on the side of his head.

"I feel okay..." Ash coughed but Birch's high-tech hand scanner along with his facial expression suggested otherwise which prompted Ash to ask, "How bad?"

"Major concussion, broken ribs, punctured lungs and major internal bleeding..." The scanner beeped with an annoying high-pitched sound multiple times before it flat-lined. Birch looked at a very much alive Ash with an astonished expression and said, "You should be dead."

"Thanks…" Ash spoke in sarcasm.

"But how?" May glanced at Ash who gave her a warm smile.

"He's ability to use aura," a dark masculine voice somehow overheard May's soft voice. The owner of the voice barged into the laboratory along with an assistant saying 'I'm sorry' to Professor Birch. Birch then sent the assistant away so the three of them could talk privately to the fedora wearing man and his bipedal jackal.

The man wore a royal fedora and jacket with a black turtleneck underneath along chocolate colored khakis and boots. His gold necklace's design looked eerily similar to May for some reason and she didn't know why. "My name is Riley; I need to talk to Ash. _Alone_." He didn't ask but rather commanded as Birch simply nodded along with May. Riley glared at Birch for some reason as the duo walked out of the infirmary.

"I need to ask you a question, Ash," said Riley as he softened his voice a little bit but it still sounded harsh.

"Yeah?" Ash said as he picked his head to look up at the stranger in his eyes. However the tilt of his fedora prevented Ash from doing so.

"Are you able to use aura outside of your demon state?" Riley asked; it was simple question yes or no question that he already knew.

"No," Ash figured there was no use for lying as he thought that they probably already knew the answer.

"Well, then this is going to hurt," Riley said bluntly as he nodded to his Lucario to go ahead with the plan. Lucario created a yellowish-pinkish ball between his paws before he continuously streamed it into Ash's body. Ash tried his best to brace for the impact, but it didn't do anything as he screamed in agony. May tried to run to his aid, but Riley set up a force field to prevent anyone from entering the room. Lucario soon stopped his healing pulse and pulled Ash onto the floor. Surprisingly for Ash, it didn't hurt as bad as he thought he would. "Get up!" Riley barked as he punted Ash in the gut.

Ash had no idea what was going on as he felt like the kick made Aggron's punch seem like a fly landing on him. He tried to stabilize himself on the bed but this time, Lucario dislocated his shoulder by ripping him into the ground. However Lucario soon fixed it, and made it feel better before he gave him a quick jab in his kidney.

"Stand up and fight me!" Riley roared as he watched Ash struggle to get up, he didn't like this way of making sure someone is willing to keep getting up after they were near-death. Ash didn't stand up quick enough, so Riley stomped over to Ash and grabbed him by his shirt collar to force him to stand up. Ash took advantage by returning the punt from earlier. Riley let Ash go and keeled over before he looked back up at Ash who was in a fighting stance.

Riley smirked. He knew that Ash would never stand down from a fight he cannot win. More people needed be like him.

Ash, instead of rushing in like Riley thought, waited for his opponent to make his first move. However Lucario was about to blast Ash with a non-lethal aura pulse, but somehow Ash sensed it. Ash sidestepped and caught both of his aura-users off guard so Riley could be shot by his own teammate. Riley was knocked onto his tailbone as he looked up to Ash kneeing Lucario in his jaw, and soon after it fell down onto the floor without being able to break its fall so it was now a one vs. one.

"Oak taught you well," Riley commented as he deeply chuckled at his Lucario being knocked out by an opponent way less experienced.

"Yeah and who taught him?" Ash smirked as he too glanced at Lucario who was probably seeing stars right now.

"Me," Riley replied with a quick aura-sphere but Ash saw it coming and rolled to the side before he could get hit.

"And what are you?" Ash gasped as he did a standing back flip to dodge another ball of aura.

"I'm an aura guardian," Riley saw no harm in revealing his profession this early. Riley stopped his assault just as Ash ran out of room to dodge any more aura-spheres.

"So why do you insist on fighting me?" Ash tried to intake as much as he could as he kept dodging the rapid fire aura spheres.

"To test how much determination and perseverance you have," Riley replied as he turned his back to Ash to create a larger aura sphere that Ash could not possibly dodge, because he would quickly send off five balls at once, one for each possible direction. He added, "And to see what combat skills you need to work on."

"And...?"Ash predicted Riley would turn around and shoot a sphere aura at him, which he was right.

"I need to see you in real combat, against killable foes. So that's why we're going to go the Team Magma base tomorrow," Riley commented as he turned around and launched the brewing aura sphere in five different directions. He laughed when he saw Ash hanging onto the lights.

Now Ash had nowhere to dodge, and Riley wanted to finish Ash or at the least knock him out. Ash realized this so he started swinging on the hanging light, and Riley charged his aura sphere. At the same time, Ash let go of the light, Riley released his sphere.

Ash dropped down towards Riley like a missile but he came short because the aura sphere hit his lower jaw first. Ash sprawled on the floor and was groaning when Riley walked over to him and looked at him before he chuckled, "I'll answer the rest of your questions when you wake up."

Riley didn't realize that his barrier faded which allowed a certain female enter the infirmary. Riley's smirk faded when he turned around to face a woman with a displeased attitude and arms crossed over her chest. He knew what was coming next; his world immediately went black just like Ash's and Lucario's.

May huffed and exited the infirmary leaving the on-the-ground groaning males to regain consciousness.

* * *

_Professor Birch's Lab - Lounge_

* * *

Ash watched intently at the video that that the recently deceased Ever Grande Knight relayed to his superiors. He saw Pokemon being tortured in order to break through an ancient wall with designs of a familiar legendary Pokemon on it; the continent Pokemon, Groudon.

Camerupts and Machamps were being whipped in order to take away what seemed like immovable boulders from the monstrously-sized door; every time the Pokemon tried to retaliate; either Aggrons or Medichams put them down. The sheer brutality angered May, to the point she screamed which startled both Birch and Ash, Pikachu into shocking her involuntarily and , "Why are waiting here and doing nothing!?"

"This was taken a week ago, there is nothing we can do now except watch," Riley blankly stated and it made May clench her teeth as the video cut to another screen, the last one. It was the last video that the Ever Grande Knight ever sent. Even though Riley already watched the clip a few times, what transpired next kept giving him goose-bumps and chills. May was absolutely horrified to the point where she clung unto Ash's arms at what Team Magma unsealed from one of the world's inner sanctum, but Birch and Ash had the same reactions as Riley.

The clip revealed Magma finally breaking down the sealed sanctum that must have been locked since the last time the weather trio went dormant. These were prehistoric Pokemon that escaped into the wilderness, and something that not even Magma could contain. Chills went down everyone's, both human and Pokemon, spines, even down the back of the normally fearless Charizard who had been woken up from the screaming and terrorizing the grotesque Pokemon.

Ash guessed these Pokemon to be the size of a cruise ship and if they flew in front of the sun, then everything would be shaded. These ancient Pokemon had natural smiles that bared their wickedly sharp teeth that could skewer a Tyranitar like a knife going through butter, the teeth were unbreakable from a flurry of Machamps punches. Bare bone and muscle were visible with major holes in the hide; it was if corpses were animated. Not to mention they were capable of breathing fire or ice and creating hurricane force winds with a simple flap of their wings. "Monsters... absolute monsters," Ash managed to mumble as everyone silently nodded.

No matter how much the Magma's tried to protect themselves, these monsters terminated their pitiful lives like a Arcanine stepping on a mere Rattata. Many archaeologists and scientists ran for their lives, but the crumbling cave prevented them from doing so. Soon enough the only way out was through the monster-made hole that no one could escape except for people with Pokemon that were capable of flying. There were only few survivors of the monsters.

"I think they might be ancestors to the bird trio and Aerodactyls," Birch noted.

One of those 'birds' looked directly at the camera and puked out a gaseous bomb of cobalt and pearl fumes that was nearly size of Ash's Charizard. However Ash's Charizard puffed smoke out of his nostrils because he was beginning to lose his fear towards _those_ things, he filled the entire room with charcoal smoke and soot covered the ground he was lying near. Ash thought that Charizard could do better if he truly wanted and he knew that he wanted to face one head to head. Ash heavily sighed and quickly returned Charizard to his ball as he waited for the smoke to clear out which it soon did thanks to the advanced ventilation of Birch's laboratory.

However once the smoke cleared, the screen was black to which Riley commented with a slight cough, "The video was over anyway but somehow people survived and got the warning to their heads. A couple days ago, Team Magma blasted through these rocks within the last few days and now they are just one barricade away from reaching what is in the last part of the cave. They plan on it doing it tonight and taking what's at the bottom of that cave by morning." Riley walked over to map of what's north above Littleroot and circled an area containing a series of hill before pinpointing a certain point,

"This is the 'super-secret-entrance' to their base which means that only the executive and we know about. It leads directly to the actual artifact, where they could've taken it at any moment in the past day or two. The executives knew that there was Aqua spies, and that they relayed their info to their superiors. Team Aqua is planning to attack tomorrow morning so that is why simple warrior-grunts are _working _to clear out the _rubble_ to the artifact. Thanks to the knight, we know exactly when the executives are taking the artifact away to their central base in Lilycove City. There is only one way-in and one-way out, an underground waterfall that empties into the lake in Route 102. I have agents at that lake just in case the executives jump into the river."

"And you're bringing into us why? Why do you need our help? I understand you need to evaluate my skills but for what?" Ash demanded and he stood up to match Riley's height.

"Ash, to my understanding between what Oak told me about your aura and your history and the fact that Riley is an Aura Guardian... Riley wants to see if you're ready to tame yourself and teach you the ways of Aura. Is that correct, Mr. Riley?" Birch tried to answer for Riley.

"To an extent, I know he is ready to be taught. But what I want to know is if he welcomes death and if he is ready to die any moment, along with to see if he has the ability to control the Sacred Sapphire and Ruby of Hoenn and reveal the pasts of Hoenn. To my knowledge, only one person ever survived the trip down to the bottom of the Cave of Origin and was able to control the stones without being completely corrupted to the point where they died..." Riley lifted his fedora to look Ash straight into his eyes as he took a deep breath before he continued, "his name was Aaron. Sir Aaron, your ancestor."

"When are we leaving?" Ash simply questioned with a renewed sense of determination. _'I don't think this is the greatest idea..._' May thought as she bit her bottom lip when she saw the fire raging in Ash's eyes.

"Tonight."

* * *

This is the second and final section, it's going to be around 35-40 chapters

_Clarified Information_:

*Elite Trainers can carry as much Pokemon as they want, although most don't

**Pokemon Nicknames:**

**Ash's Team**

Pikachu, Infernape - Taz, Ferilagatr - Croc, Tyranitar - Gira, Sceptile - Boss, Garchomp - Gira

*Charizard

**May's team**

Baziken - Kelly (Named after spartan-087), Glaceon - Eve, Venusaur - Venus(original, I know...), Dragonite - Storm, Munchlax - Goon, Aggron - Godo

Ages:

Brock - 24

Ash/Drew/Marshall(OC)/ Lana(OC) - 19

May - 18

It's Influenced by all three aspects of Pokemon(anime, game, manga)


	11. Chapter 11: Brock

Thanks to** Midnightmoon602** for beta-reading... check out her work if you haven't already

Remember to either PM or review if you want anything clarified, or have any complaints. Any feedback, unless its blatant flames on the shipping, is appreciated.

Read & Review. Enjoy or not.

* * *

Chapter 11: Brock

Silence grew with impatience as a certain friend waited on the other end for a response. The last minute of their conversation had been filled with nothing but stuttering and uncertainly. The certain friend wanted to speak but he to, had no idea where to begin,

"Old friend, I need a favor"

Surprised, the old friend replied.

"Birch... What do you need?"

"Do you know the Aura Guardian Riley?"

Pausing for a moment to recollect his memories of the mystic aura wielding man, he replied.

"Yes but what about him?"

"He put Ash Ketchum in immediate danger."

His eyes widen in shock. Taking a moment to accept the sudden news he returned back to his calm state. "What do you want me to do?"

"Do you know where the Route 3 Underground River System is? Where Team Magma is researching that artifact?"

Confusion followed by his friend's strange request. Having no further proof that what he was asking was dangerous, the friend simply continued to ask with uncertainly.

"And you want me to go there to save him?"

"Yes."

"How long do I have?" The friend further pressed on.

"Three hours but, five minutes once Ash comes into any type of contact with that artifact."

"Consider it done."

"One more thing." Birch quickly spoke. The Professor was afraid his friend would drop on him before hearing his last request.

"Yes?"

Pausing before swallowing hard he spoke his final request. "Kill Riley."

Without a second to reply, their conversation ended.

* * *

_Outside Birch's Lab_

_Eleven O'clock_

* * *

"...So we're only supposed to use this if we're in direction or in trouble?" Ash whispered to May who was about to get onto her Dragonite for the hour and a half flight to the Magma's base camp. Ash showed her a PokeNav which made May irritated, both Ash and May had been intrigued in the small orange slide-device.

The PokeNav wasn't released to the general public because of the reason that the Hoenn government did not want it to fall into a criminal's hands. The PokeNav was given to people who did top-secret missions such as Riley and his squad and the Ever Grande Knight. Its two main functions were maps and its video recording although it could be used as a phone as well.

"Yes!" May said in a hushed tone as she straddled her Pokemon, clearly not liking the fact that she repeated her and Riley's words at least twice, "Now let's go before we can't see Riley anymore!"

"Alright, let's go," Ash agreed as he jumped on top of his Charizard who was getting antsy on the ground, his Pikachu chattered in his ear, giving him advice because both he and Charizard scouted the area. Both Pokemon gave their advice to Riley's Lucario who then translated it to Riley himself, but they kept some things secret - very important secrets.

The duo's Pokemon slowly flapped their wings in order to get airborne before they gradually ascended underneath the clouds, but not in them. There were many charred clearings scattered in the heavily dense forest, meaning that hunters had gone out of their way to draw Pokemon out in the open, and not for new territory.

Ninety minutes later on in the flight, these clearings became less numerous until there was one left. This, to Riley, signified that they should land and travel on foot for the rest of the way. Riley reared his Salamence back so Ash and May could be in yelling distance, when the pair caught up with Riley, he roared and motioned to that lone clearing, "Land in that clearing over there, and heads north until you see those hills over there!"

"What are you going to do?" Ash yelled back as the trio simply downwardly circled the clearing at this point.

"I'll meet you on the other side!" Riley replied, he never said he was going to stick with the two, although both elite trainers assumed it. May was confused but, not completely while Ash wasn't at all. He learned that Riley set up ambushes, but Riley fully expects Ash to survive, even without the armor Riley forced Ash to take off.

Riley, instead of letting Ash wear his body armor, forced him to wear a long black trench coat and the same type of fedora that he had on. His reasoning was that _'body armor is too heavy for an aura guardian and you're not as mobile'_, which clearly disregarded what the armor was specifically designed for. However Ash could not argue if he wanted to be trained, albeit unusually and cruelly.

May looked at Ash and furrowed her eyebrows to which Ash mouthed _'just go with it'._ Nodding, May commanded Storm to descend towards the lone clearing and she did so gently. However, Ash did not have such a calm landing as May. Charizard spiraled down as fast as he could but slowed down just before the three of them went 'splat'. Neither Pikachu nor Ash was all that happy. Charizard gave a toothy smirk and puffed smoke before he was immediately returned to his ball.

May smirked at Ash as she too returned her Pokemon in order to be incognito, "Had fun?" she teased.

"Yeah," Ash grumbled as he wobbled in order to regain his composure, with Pikachu agreeing with Ash with small sparks. May covered her mouth and giggled silently before she remembered why they were there. Pikachu chattered something which May and Ash understood as Ash needed to tell May about the ambushes. "

_I just hope that Riley isn't a psychological bastard... I mean what if he knew we knew about his ambushes and so he told them to be ready... so he must know if Pikachu found out. I think we bank far left before going towards the mountains..."_

"So something's up... and I want to know what it is," May stated and crossed her arms as Pikachu went into a battle position just in case because he remembered there being some mercenaries five minutes away from here meaning Ash and May have a minute or two. Pikachu snarled as a remembrance to hurry their business. Not acting quick enough for him, Pikachu sent out sparks. Ash looked around for a hiding spot, and found a tree that he and May could climb.

Before May could say another word, Ash took her by the hand and dragged her to the tree he spotted, "Climb up there and get into another tree. I'll tell you later," he whispered and heard Pikachu charging an attack, "Get up there. Fast. And _do not_ release your Pokemon." Ash stressed.

He helped May get her footing in the tree before he turned around and grabbed two Pokeballs from his left forearm. He threw them into the air and two Pokemon emerged, just waiting to fight. Boss and Taz, with Pikachu, they're the fastest on Ash's team. Ash would've have had a hard time without those three when it came to stealthily close combat, because they were basically the skirmishers on Ash's team when Ash had to use all of his six... seven when Charizard was around.

Ash looked at Pikachu, and with his tail, he pointed what direction Riley's mercenaries were coming from. Ash pulled out two moon stone daggers from their sheaths on his back; he quickly looked for a good hiding spot before he simply decided to hide from above, but not in plain sight either.

They would have to strain their eyes by the time they successfully saw him. But by then it would be too late for the mercenaries from either the rope darts that he received from Riley or he would be crashing down on him. Ash thought these were stolen tactics from the ninjas in FuchsiaCity, although Riley said that assassins copied the Aura Guardians tactics.

Quickly pushing these thoughts out of his head, he then focused on his surroundings, hearing and seeing the criminals trying to be stealthy. He heard one of them whispers,

"_Where are they? Riley said they would still be talking."_

A moment later, he saw them scanning everywhere and he remained perfectly still when he saw a mercenary look directly at him. However the mercenary shrugged it off and turned his back while staying the same place. Ash then noticed something; the mercenary had his hand on his sword, as if he was waiting for Ash to jump down. Ash figured he would use the rope darts Riley gave him so he sheathed his twin daggers and pulled out the rope dart from inside his trench coat which made Ash think,

"_Hmm I guess it's useful for something."_

Ash twirled the rope dart in one hand and holding the on the other end to prevent the rope from getting into knots. While the rope dart was at the top of its revolution, Ash whipped it downwards at the standing mercenary who had not anticipated it. The rope dart became lodged into and wrapped around his neck, before Ash tugged on the rope as to choke out the mercenary, after a sufficient amount choking, Ash pulled up the man into the tree. Ash strained himself but eventually the unconscious man was finally in his grip, and so he dislodged and untangled the rope dart from his neck. Then Ash set the mercenary against the base of the tree, before heard another mercenary think out loud, _"Where did Mike go?"_

Ash smirked to himself as he waited for the said mercenary to come into his view. He unsheathed his twin moon daggers and saw the shadow of the spooked mercenary inch closer to hiding spot. After a few moments, the mercenary was warily searching the area where he last saw Mike and ignorantly walked into Ash's line of sight.

He stood where Mike stood minutes ago, but this time he didn't look up. Shrugging his shoulders, the mercenary turned his back to Ash and unfortunately for the mercenary, that was the wrong time. Ash, like superman, jumped down onto the spine of the hapless mercenary. He plunged his twin daggers into the soft spots of the mercenary's collarbone. The mercenary croaked and fell face first onto the cold dirt path. Ash grunted when he stood up after removing his daggers, before he placed them back into their holds on his lower back.

Ash sprinted from tree to tree, hiding behind one and making sure the coast was clear before running to another. He did this a few times before he returned to the clearing, all mercenaries and their Pokemon downed, either unconscious or dead. It didn't matter as they were neutralized either way.

Ash saw a few arrows in their back or sticking out from underneath their rib cage, and saw that Boss didn't his signature twig meaning that most of the downed was from him. Boss was not pleased when he didn't have a twig in his mouth. However none of his Pokemon was gassed, so Ash simply said thank you as he returned Taz and Boss to their balls. By the time, he finished his business; May climbed down and was virtually breathing down his neck.

"Tell me what is going on..." she growled with arms crossed over her chest, obviously not liking being left out of the loop. Her voice was harsh enough to make both Pikachu and Ash flinch.

"Riley set-up ambushes, so we need to go north for probably a half-hour before going east towards the Magma base if we want to avoid them. Riley is already expecting us to be late because of the ambushes anyway so we should just avoid everything altogether," Ash answered as he took a step back and turned around to face May.

"No good. We need to head south. If we head north then we'll face more trouble because it has a higher Pokemon population and as far as I know... " May had her eyes gazing at the starlit sky before she snapped them down to look Ash into the eyes, most likely for emphasis, "they don't like humans."

Pikachu agreed.

"Got it. Call out Venus so we don't have to walk," Ash ordered before he backtracked to see May's glare, but he didn't have any knowledge that she would agree so he muttered, "Just a suggestion."

"Why? Not manly enough to walk for hours?" May had a smirk on her face before she gave Ash a warm smile and giggle while she threw out her Venusaur, "Just kidding, I don't want to walk for hours either."

Ash muttered something, hoping May didn't hear it as they hopped onto the lumbering reptile and leaned back against its flower stem. For a good five minutes, the ride was silent as they simply gazed at the stars through the tree canopy. Ash decided to break the silence by saying,

"I've been wondering why your whole personality changes when we're in a life or death situation?"

"Hmm, I think it was because my father didn't want a girl who couldn't protect herself. That's why he made me and mom leave Johto, they're military isn't as strong as ours or Kanto's. He had a small house in Littleroot, he made us live there and he visited us there on the weekends after he closed his finished his gym leader business. During those visits he would often take me and my younger brother Max out into the wild and make us survive by ourselves. He taught us everything, from surviving to handling a weapon. Max liked his spears while I choose bows, which also happened to be Professor Birch's signature weapon,"

May slightly smiled as she reminisced. Her face then turned sour before she spoke again, "After a few months, my father stopped visiting because of the horrible bug swarms ravaging Hoenn so he sent us one of his archers from Oldale. That archer was cold, mean, and nasty. He made us... I don't really want to say it. Then after a while of doing that, he made me and Max turn to chasing down criminals and ending their lives. Neither of us could handle it at first; but over time Dad's archer made us into cold-blooded killers with some morals. That archer left after a few years of intense training, and my mother and father tried her best to revert me and Max into innocent children yet again. So did all of our friends, and my friend that I told you about earlier was the one that helped me the most., which is why we made a pact to never deal with criminals again, in fear that either of us will become cold-blooded killers, me again."

"But they couldn't help when you felt threatened or were in actual battle, could they?" Ash asked as May leaned her head against his shoulders, trying her best to not burst into tears by biting her lip. Ash didn't think she would cry because of one single event but more like everything was catching up to her, everything reminded her of her past. A past that she didn't like yet forced to accept.

"No, they just made it worse," May said as Ash put his arm around her and pulled her close into his warm strong core. Her big blue eyes glistened as she looked up to Ash, seemingly wanting something more than a simple arm-hug or protection. Pikachu smacked Ash in the back of his head, after noticing May's desire which made May slightly smile that his best friend understood before she looked into the darkness and quietly asked,

"You're different during battle too. You're more violent but more protective at the same time. You kill anyone that opposes you without mercy. Why?"

"I lived in Pallet, a highly valuable town for anyone that controls it. It's the best town to live in the Kanto frontier. It's near water, it has fertile soils, you would have a Arceus damn professor to turn to if you ever need help, just as long you stay polite to their citizens. If you don't, he will kill every last member of your team. Not to mention that it's near the border and you can smuggle things easy," Ash said without hiding any bitterness before he continued with a stone cold face,

"Psychics, Team Rocket, bandits, and Pokemon League Soldiers parade the town in order to catch any potential revolts. Psychics, Team Rocket, and Bandits attack the town nearly every week, the Pokemon League enlists Pallet teenagers and young men, hell even eight-year olds, to protect Pallet. That isn't right. I was eight in my first battle, I fought alongside my mentor, Brock, and he was thirteen. He told me to be fearless and cold, and protect every kid who wasn't capable of holding a sword back to their families. I was... I was better than some fifteen year olds. But he went missing just before I got Pikachu when I was ten. Many people think he went to Pewter to take over the gym; he was a skilled Pokemon trainer. His Onix was as badass and cold as he was. People say he was the son of Flint. I don't know, I never got the connection."

"Tough so that is the only person you got your training from? Brock?" May inquired as she heard about a Brock traveling around Hoenn with an exceptionally large Onix. However she heard that he was a hand to hand fighter or be fought with axes and a not good swordsman like Ash was now.

"No, I received most of my training from Oak. He taught me how to use swords and many stealth tricks. Tricks that only ninjas from Fuchsia and Aura Guardians know of," Ash answered as he finished his own past training, and brought up a new topic, "To be honest, I don't want to be an Aura Guardian. I just want to control my inner demon, and that's it. I don't need any extra power to do what I need to do."

"No, you're wrong," May bluntly stated as she recalled history books of the Cave of Origin and Sir deep inside May's mind spat out ideas incoherently and in an old dialect as she tried to decipher them into clear ideas, "you need the extra power. You need to be an Aura Guardian. You can't control your inner demon unless you're not one. Your inner demon is too strong for you, it will overtake your mind, and it will gradually corrupt it. When you're fully corrupted, you die. You'll cause the death of everyone in the entire world if you don't be one. More importantly, you'll lose your world, why the legendaries chose you, why Arceus agreed with them... it's because of me and you; us."

"Us? What's so important about us?" Ash retorted, but as he kept saying 'us', he liked the idea better and better each time he said it.

"Didn't you hear Riley say that your ancestor is the only one to make it down to the Cave of Origin and live?" May quickly countered. Ash nodded before she continued onto her rant, "Well he had someone with him, someone that helped him push through 'til the end, someone that made him keep him on track, someone that was waiting for him at the other side."

"What I'm wondering is why _we_ are the ones. The legends could've chosen anyone else, perfectly capable of doing the exact same thing as they want us to do," Ash paused for a moment to let May think about it for a second before he shouted,"And what exactly is so important about the world's past that we need to know about now?"

"I don't know, Ash, I don't know," May spoke with a hurt voice as tried distancing herself away from Ash by scooting herself towards edge of Venus' stem and throwing Ash's arm off of her.

But before she could do that, Ash tightened his grip around her and pulled her close into him as he softly said, "I'm sorry for my outburst but... I just hate not knowing _why_ we are doing things. I'd like to know the reason before I do stupid stuff."

"It's alright but can you promise me one thing?" May questioned with the same tone of voice as Ash.

"What is it?"

* * *

_Outside Route 3 Underground River System_

* * *

_*Beep**Beep**Beep*_

_PokeNav:_

_2357_

_ETA 10 Minutes_

"We're that close already?" May yawned as she found herself on top of Ash's unconscious body, her head on his ribcage, with Pikachu in between her arms. She gently nudged Ash and teased, "Come on sleepy-head, you need to get up," with a small playful smile.

"I don't want to," Ash growled as he swatted at thing that nudged him, however having his eyes closed his missed.

"Ash, seriously."

"Okay mother..." Ash opened his eyes, yawned and stretched from his body being in a weird position for over an hour.

The rest of the ten minute trek to the cavern, well-hidden by the dense forest covered most of Hoenn, was fairly uneventful and quiet, a result of being exhausted. Venus stopped the moment she arrived at the rolling hills littered with numerous caves that led to the intricate River system down below.

Both trainers hopped off the large reptile as a blinding red beam consumed it and May latched her Pokeball back to its place on the magnetic strip on her belt. From the brief outline that Riley gave them before the flight, the trainers knew that they could enter any cave and it will lead to the same place. Simultaneously, they glanced at each other before they nodded which meant that they were ready to venture into the darkness of the caves. Pikachu, knowing the dangers of lighting up a cave, decided that that he wouldn't use electricity or flash for fear of Zubats eviscerating the trio.

As they entered the narrow cave which was more like a single-file tunnel, they heard a continuous thunderous sound emit from the bowels of the cavern. They knew it was from the waterfall and that they had to tread carefully in case that there was slippery rocks which could mean a certain death for the heroes. However despite the consequences, the sound was soothing for the trio, they couldn't wait to enter the actual room that the waterfall was in and they hoped that the moonlight was shining on it as to create an awe-inspiring view that would never escape their memories.

Ash had Pikachu scout in front of them for a potential danger as both he and May scanned the walls for Zubats. Pikachu kept going on ahead and coming back almost immediately for nearly fifteen minutes. Except he didn't come back the last time, which caused worry for both trainers, however they kept advancing in hopes of finding the small rodent again.

Ash saw some light, and the thunderous roar deafened anything that either Ash or May had planned to say therefore they kept silent. Shortly after of the roaring becoming louder, they entered the main cavern, the one with the waterfall and the light source at the same time they found Pikachu, who had been in a trance staring at the absolute beauty.

The view in which they had was magnificent. Soft grass along with vivid azure, crimson, gold and violet flowers blanketed nearly everything barring the waterfall itself and the ancient trees, merely a guess due to their gargantuan size, at the top of the waterfall. It was an area that was untouched by human occupants, with people only going there for the view, daring not to disturb one of the only sites of tranquility left in Hoenn. There wasn't even a dirt path that explorers often find in secluded places like this, meaning no land Pokemon rarely roam deep underground.

To the right, clear water turned white as it tumbled over the cliff into a small pool nearly a hundred feet below before repeating the process once again, there were at least seven pools that the water traversed before reaching the bottom of the enormous cavern. The cascading water sounded much like thunder after a lightning bolt struck the earth. Like what lightning would do to things, the moonlight brightened anything in a few hundred foot diameter because of the opening in the ceiling.

Peaceful.

But what was south of the waterfall was entirely different.

However being the human male he was, Ash was the first to tear his gaze from the waterfall and back to the other elite trainer. "May, we have to go. We can come back later," He commanded as he tried his best to not look back at the waterfall. With a quick shake of her head, May kept staring at the waterfall, but that was before Ash gently turned her gaze form it to him.

"What?" May asked, clearly confused on their objective. Ash pulled the PokeNav in her face before putting it in her hands; obviously it was a bad idea to put advanced technology into his hands. "Oh yeah," she said before she pressed some buttons which the PokeNav made a high-pitched noise every time and after a few seconds she spoke up, "we need to head north for fifteen minutes."

"Got it," Ash said as Pikachu jumped back onto his shoulder before they set off. Using large Pokemon on narrow unstable paths was careless and would've put everyone in danger.

They trekked up the river without a sound, taking in all the freshness before death, more-so for the heroes' enemies, and fighting came. The next moment, they heard the alarm of the PokeNav sound off which startled the trio into battle positions. Being out in the wild and hearing an unnatural noise made anyone be on edge due to the violent nature of humans and Pokemon.

May looked on the PokeNav and saw a flashing red dot on the small screen, signifying that the destination was across the river. Upriver, the landscape was virtually the same except the rays of the moonlight shown in smaller areas. They remembered Riley saying that they had to cross the river, and there was a small 'M' with a circle near a tunnel engraved into the wall on the other side. What was peculiar to them was that Riley was nowhere in sight.

They agreed to call out Storm and fly on her across the river, it took more than a few seconds to cross the river because the immense size. As quickly as it took Storm to reach full speed, she had to slow down in order to stop herself from ramming into the wall. May thanked her Pokemon before she returned the Dragonite back into its ball as she staggered a bit from the quick acceleration and deceleration, however Ash did not have the same problem.

"Where is Riley?" May decided to ask the same question the both of them were thinking.

"Right here," The man in the fedora spoke as he stepped out of the tunnels into the vision of the two, "are you two ready?"

Simultaneously, they nodded.

"Follow me," Riley said as he walked back into the tunnel he stepped out of.

* * *

_Outside Headquarters_

_0030_

* * *

"Again why do you want us to do this? You could've easily done this yourself," Ash growled as he peeked into the room containing the ancient artifact. It immediately illuminated when he looked at. He felt a burning sensation, one that made his head feel like it was going to burst, that started to overwhelm him, quite similar to when his inner demon took over but it was more powerful. Which in fact what was happening, it made Ash realize why Riley wanted him to steal it. "Bastard."

Riley responded, "You have about five minutes before you are completely corrupted... to the point of no return. The only way to stop it is if you destroy it _...or if I stop it... _There is one admin, who you must not kill, a lead scientist, who you must capture, and two guards, dispose of them. The admin and the guards are heavily armed; they have war axes and each have Pokemon enhanced with technology. The bright side they only have one. I will not help you but May will. You cannot use your Pokemon or weapons only your aura. May, you don't have the same restrictions."

Before Ash or May could argue, Riley threw both of them into the HQ and created a shield to prevent the two from escaping.

"So, do either of you two want to join Magma?" The admin asked them while motioning to her guards to put their weapons away. She swayed her hips as she walked towards the duo, while Ash got a brilliant plan in his head. He whispered something inaudibly to May to which she agreed with a slight head nod.

"What do we get if we do?" Ash asked with crossed arms as May glanced back at Riley who still had a stone face, showing neither a surprise look nor a smirk.

"Well for starters you get benefits..." The admin smiled underneath her hood as she pulled back it in order to show off her head. She was striking, not exactly gorgeous or cute. Her hair that went down to her shoulders and almond shaped eyes were the same color as Ash's. Ash knew what she was trying to do; she wanted to seduce him.

"Like what?" Ash said with same expression Riley wore as the admin was twirling in her glossy hair in her fingers.

"Money... new technology... among other things." The admin stopped walking just in front of Ash.

"Deal," Ash said before he looked at the artifact and pointed at the emerald sphere that was held in place by what looked like mountains, "on one condition.'

"You want to destroy that artifact right?" The admin and Ash stared at it as it started to flicker with energy, he silently nodded. Ash's dark aura emanated around him like fire while around the other artifact became sapphire.

A moment later the aura between the two began to transfer from one to another. It clearly surprised everyone that looked at it, even Riley. They were all speechless. May caught the moment of surprise on Riley's face before it faded and she immediately found it odd. One would think that an aura guardian would expect that.

Ash's dark aura merged with sapphire one, and it caused Ash a great deal of pain as he saw a vision of the past. To him, he could barely describe it into words. It was like a nightmare. It involved those freak things he saw in the knight's video hours earlier and someone that looked quite like him with a Lucario companion. Aaron, that was the man's name Ash thought as he saw him slaying those monsters to get into a chamber. However it was choppy, all he saw was the gore, and was not comprehensible. However the last of his vision was clear as day, it was the continent Pokemon behind that chamber: Groudon.

Ash dropped to the ground, clutching his head as May rushed over to him. His regular vision started to fade as he saw holding his head, gently rubbing the back of his head, whispering _'Not yet. Please don't go'_ over and over. The guards subdued Pikachu when he tried to destroy the artifact, and he could barely hear the admin order,

"Send the both of them back to Lilycove. I'll deal with the aura-user myself." There was a deep rumbling from underneath the ground which caused the guards to hesitate, along with the blinding flashes the artifact gave off. "Do it," The admin barked.

Ash slowly strained his eyes to look at Riley trying to flee but a vaguely familiar man accompanied by a Kabutops stopped him. At that moment, another tremor and a flash went off but after the fact, Riley nor the man and his Pokemon were seen. One of the guards finally gained enough strength to walk over to the duo, and as he went to pull May off of Ash, Ash unsheathed a dagger from his back. He plunged it into the side of the guard's unarmored neck, with his other hand grabbed the man's collar and growled,

"Don't touch her or you die," before pushing him backwards. He looked to the guard and asked, "Understood?"

He nodded. However another tremor and flash, this time longer and brighter, once again went off, and that guard was nowhere to be seen, despite Ash not verbally saying he'll live if he doesn't touch May. Ash glanced at the admin and the scientist who had been knocked unconscious; he figured that man found them useful.

The last tremor and flash went off as the artifact exploded, however in a rock snake's mouth preventing any damage to May or Ash. The only thing that illuminated the room now was the dim light given off by the machines as the Onix destroyed the main source of light.

The man soon showed himself to the two, and now that the man was in close proximity, Ash knew exactly who he was. Ash close to near exhaustion mumbled one thing, "Brock," before blacking out.

"Come on, we need to get out of here before everything collapses," The man, who Ash identified as Brock, ordered as he picked up the unconscious body and carried him fireman's style.

"What about those two?" May asked as she glanced over at the two magma members before she kneeled down so Pikachu could hop on top of her shoulder.

"They'll survive, they have back-up, we don't" Brock said as he jogged into the tunnel that they entered with May close behind. "Do you have a flying Pokemon."

"Yeah," May answered grabbed Storm's Pokeball already knowing what Brock would ask her.

"When we get out into the main cavern, go back to Birch's lab and I'll meet you there," Brock commanded.

Leaving little time to argue, May simple agreed and left without saying another word as Brock left with his close friend in his arms, looking for a safe place for the night.


End file.
